“Hard candy Christmas” is one of those phrases that perfectly sums up a whole mood. It refers to Christmases where families could only afford penny store candy. It’s sad and wistful, but it still rings with the little promise of hope that Christmas seems to hope. And maybe next year…
I think we all know that feel.
I’ve read tons of articles about the food that people are missing this year. Here in the thick of the holiday season, I’m finding myself missing candy.
Not just any candy, of course. I miss Eastern Kentucky Christmas candy. Simple recipes, passed around on index cards. Little confections made as often with microwaves as stovetops. Make-do ingredients, bought with coupons: syrupy maraschino cherries, bagged flake coconut, Ritz crackers, powdered sugar by the pound, peanut butter, cheap chocolate bark, sweetened condensed milk, chow mein noodles, mini marshmallows, just a pinch of salt.
Potato Candy
Imagine a sweet, white dough rolled up with peanut butter. Nope, go sweeter. Doughier. There ya go.
Yes, it’s made with potatoes. It’s easiest to use boiled, mashed russet potatoes, but I know some people who use dried potato flakes (just be sure it’s not seasoned or too buttery in the box!) Crunchy peanut butter is fine, but I prefer smooth.
Cookie on a Ritz
This one scares a lot of people (someone in the comments on this recipe said it looked “catfood-y”) but it’s wholly delicious. It’s a Ritz cracker topped with nuts and glaze, then baked. Buttery, sweet, a little salty. The cracker goes pretty soft, which turns a lot of people off.
Martha Washingtons
This is a little bomb of texture. Coconut, cherries, nuts and so much creamy sweetness, coated in chocolate. They’re actually named for the candy company that made them, which shuttered its doors in the 1940s. As best I can tell, the originals had no cherries, but I think it brings a little amidst all that sugariness.
Divinity
A true Southern staple. It’s denser than a traditional meringue and generally topped with nuts. It seems to have origins in the early 20th century, possibly with the Karo syrup company. It ain’t Christmas or a funeral unless somebody turns up with a tin of divinity.
Cream Pull Candy
Essentially, cream candy starts out not entirely unlike taffy. But there’s a little magic in the dough: left out overnight, it transforms into a soft, buttery candy. It’s a texture I haven’t really found anywhere else. It melts in your mouth, but it’s crumbly. It’s not really dough, but it’s not really solid.
No one’s quite sure how this magic stuff got started, but it became a local classic when some turn-of-the-century ladies started selling it (thus eliminating some seriously arm-burning labor.) I prefer to pick it up in tubs at country gas stations to save myself the trouble. The Blue Monday, a chocolate-dipped bar version, remains one of our state’s most iconic goods.
Fudge
I fudging love fudge. I honestly can’t imagine a Christmas season without a few bites. It’s most common to see peanut butter or chocolate fudge, since they’re easy to make with ingredients you probably have on hand, but other flavors are always welcome. I won’t even pretend to be precious about no-fail versus might fail.
Haystacks/Church Window Cookies
I’m putting these together because my granny made them pretty interchangeably. The mini marshmallows in her haystacks were often rainbow, since she had some for church windowpane cookies. And the recipes would be easily melded, I think. I’m not sure of the history, but both smack of Baby Boom era cooking.
Some Others
Cream cheese mints. Bourbon balls (honestly, just buy them.) Cherry cordials. Buckeyes. Cinnamon rock candy.
How About You?
Tell me about your fave Christmas candies!
Ornaments!
Some of you expressed interest in hearing about my favorite ornaments. Well y’all, I expressed interest in telling you about them.
I’m actually going to start with a new kid on the block. One of my boyfriends quarantivities has been 3D printing. We wanted some of the Claymation characters for our tree, so he printed Santa from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I painted him (poorly) and here he is, in all 2 inches of his glory.