Candy Canes

I should be cleaning the kitchen because we’re going to Tinytown to visit our families again and will be leaving soon and I like to leave the house clean but I’d rather post about what I did this morning because I’m so excited about it.

When I was little my Grandma L always had pretty dishes of candy at Christmas and one of my favorites were these little peppermint candies.  They were always different shapes and sizes.  Some had lots of green while others had more red but they were always beautiful candy jewels I looked forward to every year.  As I got older I realized they weren’t uniform because they were hand made and that made them all the more special to me.

When my grandma died my grandpa, who had Alzheimer’s, came to live with my family.  Every Christmas a little package of this beautiful candy would arrive for my grandpa from my Auntie Mur.  Auntie Mur is my Grandma L’s youngest sister.  Of my grandma’s three sisters she looks the most like my grandma.  One year I asked my mom if she could call Auntie Mur and ask her for the recipe for the candy so we could make it ourselves.  My mom told me she’d helped make it before when she was growing up but told me we couldn’t do it at our house because even though we had a big marble slab we didn’t have a hook to pull it on.  I was sad to hear that was the case but continued to look forward to the candy package every year.

When my grandpa passed the packages stopped coming until one year when my mom mentioned to Auntie Mur how much I had loved those candies.  Every year since then Auntie Mur has sent my family a little package of them.

Auntie Mur is my cousin Aliese’s grandma.  I know that actually makes Aliese and me second cousins and Auntie Mur my great-aunt but our families grew up calling each other cousins and aunts to make it easier for us to understand and it just stuck.  Anyway, a couple of years ago for Christmas Aliese received a marble slab and a hook so she could make candy on her own.  She shared how her family came to make these candies every year.  Aliese’s grandpa’s family had joined our faith in England around the turn of the century and left England to come to America.  Two of the things they brought with them across the ocean were their marble slab and their candy hook.  They passed their candy making knowledge on to their children who then passed it on to theirs.  My Auntie Mur married into the candy-making family of my Uncle Kay.  I think when my Grandma L and Grandpa K were still alive Auntie Mur and Uncle Kay invited them over to make candy every Christmas.

So for the last couple of years I’ve been wanting to get together with Aliese and make some candy canes.  I even called Auntie Mur last year to get the recipe and ask her where I could acquire a hook.  It turns out Aliese’s mom had one of her high school students who happened to also be taking a welding class make one for each of her kids.  Now that I know what it actually looks like I may have to find someone who can make one for me, too.

Aliese and I decided to try to get together to make some this holiday season so when I got a text from her last night asking if I wanted to do it this morning I jumped at the chance.  Peanut and Wingnut were engrossed in Toy Story while we boiled the sugar mixture and buttered the marble slab and hook.

While most of the candy cooled a little on the slab the rest was divided and color was swirled in.

Once the peppermint oil was added and the candy cooled enough it was picked up and pulled on the hook while the red and green candy was poured to cool.

After pulling it was layered together and pulled into ropes that were snipped into little bits (what I grew up eating) or snipped into longer bits then formed into canes or rolled unto sticks for easier kid consumption.

They looked so shiny and beautiful and, of course, taste wonderful.

Over the years Auntie Mur and Uncle Kay have taught most of their neighbors how to make candy canes and I’m so happy they’re willing to share their candymaking heritage with me as well.  Thanks for letting me come play with you and your family today, Aliese!  The candy making was awesome and it was fun to visit with you, too.