Subject: French Creams
From: Kay
Date: 5/26/2021, 11:17 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
On 5/25/2021 9:01 PM, Kay wrote:
am trying to get the receipe for
French Creams like the ones Brach’s made.
Kay, Thank you!
Hi Kay,
Well, I have looked for French Creams recipes several times, mostly quite a few years ago,
and I found today that most of the links that I found then are out-of-date and broken now,
so this will be an update of what I can find on the web.
When you ask for a recipe "like Brach's made", I'm afraid that I cannot help you. Unless a
recipe specifically says "these are just like Brach's made", then I would have no way of
telling whether they are like Brach's or not. I vaguely remember having them many years ago
at parties and family holidays, but I couldn't look at a recipe and say "those are just like
Brach's." I suppose you mean candies that looked like this:
Pinterest
Be that as it may, the only recipes that I can find for making French Creams are the same
recipes that I found in 2003. The first one is on this site:Old Fashioned French Creams.
I have no idea if they taste the same as Brach's. and if you want them to look the same,
you'll have to find some molds or hand mold them. I am also posting that recipe below, just
in case that website vanishes as so many others have. The second recipe below is one that has
vanished from the web. I was, however able to retrieve it from 2013 with the "wayback machine."
You'll have to add flavorings of your choice to either of these recipes.
You can buy French Creams at several places on the web. They look right, but do they taste the
same? See:
Vermont Country Store
O'Shea's Candies
Phaed
Old Fashioned French Creams
Old Fashioned French Creams
4 c. granulated sugar
1 c. water
few drops food coloring (optional)
few drops mint extract or other candy flavoring extract (optional)
In a large saucepan (candy will bubble up to five times it's original size when cooking)
cook sugar and water over medium heat. Stir occasionally until it starts to boil, then
reduce heat slightly and allow to boil with minimal stirring for about ten minutes.
After about 7 or 8 minutes, start dripping some of the sugar into a glass of very cold water.
If it strings and holds together in the bottom of the glass in a soft little blob, it's ready
(if it strings and cracks like a lollipop - you probably cooked it too long). I also did the
spoon rubbing test from this recipe, and that worked too.
Remove from the heat and stir in coloring. Place in stand mixer with paddle attachment and
start it off on low (unless you want a shower of white hot sugar syrup). Increase speed
slightly after a minute or two, and it should go from clear to opaque. Increase a little more
after the candy goes opaque and soon it will crystallize and get like dough. Add your flavoring.
Mix until it is able to be picked up without burning yourself and press it into candy molds,
or roll into logs and slice. You need to work fairly fast, but I messed with it for about
15 minutes before it became too brittle to shape. I guess you can re-heat it to work it more,
but I didn't try that.
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French Cream Candy:
Put four cupfuls of white sugar and one cupful of water into a bright tin pan on the range and
let it boil without stirring for ten minutes. If it looks somewhat thick, test it by letting
some drop from the spoon, and if it threads, remove the pan to the table. Take out a small
spoonful, and rub it against the side of a cake bowl; if it becomes creamy, and will roll into
a ball between the fingers, pour the whole into the bowl. When cool enough to bear your finger
in it, take it in your lap, stir or beat it with a large spoon, or pudding-stick. It will soon
begin to look like cream, and then grow stiffer until you find it necessary to take your hands
and work it like bread dough. If it is not boiled enough to cream, set it back upon the range
and let it remain one or two minutes, or as long as is necessary, taking care not to cook it
too much. Add the flavoring as soon as it begins to cool. This is the foundation of all French
creams. It can be made into rolls, and sliced off, or packed in plates and cut into small cubes,
or made into any shape imitating French candies. A pretty form is made by coloring some of the
cream pink, taking a piece about as large as a hazel nut, and crowding an almond meat half way
into one side, till it looks like a bursting kernel. In working, should the cream get too cold,
warm it. To be successful in making this cream, several points are to be remembered; when the
boiled sugar is cool enough to beat, if it looks rough and has turned to sugar, it is because
it has been boiled too much, or has been stirred. If, after it is beaten, it does not look like
lard or thick cream, and is sandy or sugary instead, it is because you did not let it get cool
enough before beating. It is not boiled enough if it does not harden so as to work like dough,
and should not stick to the hands; in this case put it back into the pan with an ounce of hot
water, and cook over just enough, by testing in water as above. After it is turned into the
bowl to cool, it should look clear as jelly. Practice and patience will make perfect.
