A Holiday with Raymona Marie Anderson

A couple of Christmas seasons ago our niece came from Texas bearing my husband’s favorite candy––peanut brittle. We were grateful that she brought the purchased variety.

Cindy’s homemade peanut brittle is family legend––at least among we who witnessed her first, valiant attempt to make the treat decades ago. More about that later.

Back in the day, making Christmas Candy was an annual event. It began when I was a girl at home, and years later became a party with my sister-in-law, Norma Anderson and her daughters, Debbie and Cindy.

A winter afternoon, sunny but cold enough to nip one’s toes, transformed her kitchen or mine into a toasty haven. Sugary smells spiced with vanilla, gossip and laughter enriched the hours.

We had loaded in supplies: sugar, cream, butter, flour and spices (just wait for that one too) as well as white and dark syrup, pecans, walnuts, and yes, peanuts.

Essential tools—big black iron skillets and long handled spoons for beating the fudge.

My traditional fudge combines cocoa, sugar, and milk boiled in that skillet to the perfect stage (a drop in cold water could be manipulated into a soft ball). A teaspoon of vanilla, some cooling and then the work begins. The cooled mixture requires beating until it flows into the buttered pan in ripples that settle smooth to harden. The fudge melts in the mouth.

The soft ball and the beating are the secret, the latter demanded stamina maintained with a steady supply of black coffee. Norma preferred cola. Her specialties required Herculean stamina.

She made Aunt Bill’s Brown Candy–I shudder at the memory of watching her go through that process– and a cookie called peppernuts. A treat that originated as pfeffernusse in Europe, the dough is rolled between the palms into a long rope and then cut into pellets for baking. The tiny cookies are eaten by the handful.

Norma cut her peppernuts into a dishpan, so I’m sure there were plenty to go around when her sisters and their families came for Christmas.

Her creamy, no chocolate fudge created by someone’s Aunt Bill, became a favorite I appreciated fully after watching her make it. She performed magic with her iron skillet, stirring granulated white sugar over low heat until it browned. Ingredients added then are lost in memory, but the procedure also included a lot of beating and produced candy the color of café-au-lait. A taste to die for.

Which brings me to Cindy’s legendary peanut brittle. She was probably around fifteen the year she declared herself ready to make it. Into the big iron skillet went the syrup, sugar, and I think butter? I never attempted peanut brittle, so can’t say for sure. Cindy boiled, and boiled, and boiled, and . . . stirred in peanuts, or rather tried to stir in peanuts. The spoon hung up in the candy.

Again, memory fails me. That happens to octogenarians. However, I will never forget that spoon standing upright in the layer of unbrittle peanut brittle cemented inside that black iron skillet. Still in some trash dump that way I suppose.

Cindy still thinks its funny too, which says a lot about her character.

For those who like homemade candy, but have little free time, here’s my current recipe.

No Iron-Skillet Fudge.

You need a big microwaveable bowl. Four quarts at least. Butter a 10 x 13 pan.

Into your bowl melt 3/4 cup margarine. Microwave about a minute on high to melt it. Add 2/3 cup unsweetened evaporated milk and 3 cups of white granulated sugar. Stir well and microwave for 2 minutes. Stir then microwave 3 ½ more minutes. Cooking is done. Scrape down the bowl, stir mixture and add 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (be sure to check the bag for weight—you know how manufacturers skimp on contents nowadays). Stir until the chips melt. Add 7 oz. marshmallow crème. Add 1 cup chopped pecans. Blend until the white disappears. Pour into your buttered pan to harden. Cut into squares.

Raymona Anderson

www.raymonamarieanderson.wordpress.com