Croccante: Italian Almond Candy Made into Tart Molds

Croccante: Italian Almond Candy Made into Tart Molds

Croquant is a French almond-caramelized sugar and lovely crispy confection that is eaten by itself or used in all sorts of sweet applications. Croquant is simply a mixture of almonds and sugar. I use chopped almonds for this, and this is different from the common 

A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina’s Best Recipes (Apple Tapioca Recipe)

A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina’s Best Recipes (Apple Tapioca Recipe)

A little charm of a book is found and it’s called “A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina’s Best Recipes, written by Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron (illustrations by Elizabeth Coulbourne) and published in 1917 by A.L. Burt Company. This book 

All-Fat Salt Pork Sweet Cake From 1906

All-Fat Salt Pork Sweet Cake From 1906

Another version of a pork cake using salt pork, this one coming from Baxter’s Practical Up-to-date Receipt Book for Bakers by Richard Baxter. This recipe calls for currants, “all-fat” salt pork chopped fine, and molasses. The salt pork is dissolved in boiling water before the 

Moonshine: The Dessert

Moonshine: The Dessert

Moonshine – you know, that clear, strong, distilled spirit with a high alcohol content generally made from backyard stills. Just reading the word conjures up images from prohibition times, backwoods stills, and cases of unlabeled bottles being carted around in beds of pick up trucks. 

Anise Drops from 1907

Anise Drops from 1907

It was National Anisette Day a couple of days ago, and I put a few anise cookie recipes on the Pastry Sampler Blog with recipes from the 1950s and 1960s. An interesting one from my cookbook collection comes from 1907 so I’m sharing it here.