Cookery for every household

1 lb. fondant. Oil of peppermint. Water. Make the fondant according to directions given in Recipe 2858, boiling it to 240°. Put it into a saucepan with a very little water, or stock syrup, and warm carefully over the fire. Flavour with oil or essence of peppermint. Remove the saucepan from the fire or gas occasionally and beat the fondant in order to make glossy. Heat it until it feels uncomfortably hot when the tip of the finger is held in it. If the fondant is not made hot enough, the peppermint creams will not harden, and, if too hot, they will become hard and streaky-looking. Be careful, too, about the amount of water used ; the fondant should be of a thick creamy consistency. If made too thin the creams will not set. The quantity of water will vary somewhat according to the weather ; in hot weather scarcely any will be required. Have ready some small peppermint rings placed on a marble slab, or on a tray lined with wax paper. Pour the fondant into these and allow them to set — they should set at once. Turn out when cold, and leave the peppermint creams to dry a short time before eating or packing. Note. — These may be crystallised (Recipe 2862) if they have to be kept some time. 2880. Peppermint Tablet 1 lb. granulated sugar. I 1 oz. butter. 1 gill milk. | Essence of peppermint. Put the sugar and milk into a saucepan, bring them slowly to the boil, and then simmer from 10 to 15 minutes, stirring all the time. Test a little of the mixture in cold water, and, if ready, it should form a hardish ball, or register about 245° F. on the thermometer. When sufficiently cooked, remove the saucepan from the fire, add the butter and enough peppermint to flavour, and stir until the mixture grains. Pour out on an oiled tin, mark ■with the back of a knife into convenientsized pieces, and when cold cut up. CHOCOLATES 2881. Chocolate for Covering 1 lb. chocolate. 1 to 2 oz. cocoa butter. For covering purposes buy good, plain chocolate at from Is. 6 d. to 2s. per lb., and use also the best and purest cocoa butter. Or, special covering chocolate may be used, which is already mixed with a certain proportion of cocoa butter, in which case little or none of the latter will be required. In any case the quantity of cocoa butter necessary vail vary somewhat according to the kind of chocolate used, and also according to the weather, more being required in cold weather than in hot. Cut up the chocolate roughly — it is quite unnecessary to grate it — and heat it very gently over the fire until it forms a smooth paste. Keep moving and stirring the chocolate constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent its sticking and burning, and, if seems dry at the beginning, add a little cocoa butter, previously melted in a separate saucepan, and then more afterwards until the chocolate is of the right consistency for coating. A little experience mil soon teach the amount necessary. If the chocolate is not thin enough it will be thick and lumpy - looking on the sweets, and, if too much cocoa butter is used, the chocolate will be greasy and will run off the sweets. If too much is added in error, the fault can easily be remedied by adding more chocolate. Water must on no account be used to thin down the chocolate. Beat the chocolate well to give it a nice glossy appearance, but do not make it too hot.