Christmas is coming. Speeding my way since we’re going to start celebrating this weekend. I’ve been working hard to get things ready. First I cleaned the floors. They needed it, but now it’s supposed to rain for three days. Those of you who have a dog know what that means. Pawprints coming. But at least I’ll know it’s clean under those fresh muddy tracks. LOL
Now with the cleaning at least somewhat done, it’s time to think about what I’m going to cook. And what I can cook ahead of the big celebration day. I’ve been baking bread. And today I finally got one batch of cookies baked. With baking on my mind, I asked on Facebook what my friends there remembered as a best treat at Christmas.
The comments prove we are sweet lovers at Christmas time. I always loved my mother’s crackerjacks. She made the very best crackerjacks every Christmas and I could eat them until they were gone. After she began to decline in health and started having memory problems, we still made the crackerjacks with her. She always remembered enough about making them to give us advice. Here she is making sure they are spread out properly on the counter to cool.
Nobody else on Facebook said crackerjacks, but one of them said peanut brittle. Mom used to make that too. She and Dad actually raised peanuts in the garden and she would use those in the peanut brittle. That was just as good as the crackerjacks.
Others on Facebook mentioned some different kinds of cookies that I haven’t tried. I’m pretty basic with my cookies. Oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut butter, and snickerdoodles are usually what I make. The raspberry thumbprint cookies mentioned by someone and the butterscotch pecan patties by another sound much fancier.
But it was the candy that really got people going. Somebody mentioned sea foam candy and candy pudding. The sea foam candy is a brown sugar divinity. I’ve never made it but I think my aunt did. I’d rather have the white divinity. Then there was that candy pudding. My mother and aunt used to make it. We didn’t call it candy pudding. I’m not sure what they did call it. Maybe cream candy. But it was in three layers. One layer was pink with dried fruit, maybe raisins, mixed in. One layer was white with coconut and another layer was either green or chocolate with nuts. I don’t remember much about how it was made except they said you had to have cream and you needed a marble surface or some kind of very large glass plate to work the candy. It was not easy. As the friend who first mentioned the candy today said, her mother had to rest now and again while working the candy. My friend did search out her mother’s recipe and posted it in the comments.
But I was never a big fan of that candy. Give me homemade fudge any day. And if you want to gather up some black walnuts, crack them and pick out the nuts to mix in that candy, so much the better.
That said, I’ll still vote for the crackerjacks as my favorite Christmas treat while Mom was able to make it. And since Linda Dianne wants the recipe, here it is.
Mom’s Crackerjacks
3 microwave popcorn packages (natural flavor) or 3/4 cup of popcorn kernels to pop.
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup corn syrup
4 Tablespoons butter.
Pop the corn as directed on the package. Pick out any unpopped kernels. Put the popped corn in a very large metal pan (dishpan size) that you have generously greased with butter. Combine the sugar, water, corn syrup and butter. Cook to hard crack stage, 300 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and immediately add 1 teaspoon soda and vanilla. (Adding the soda is vital to the recipe success.) The mixture will foam up. Be prepared. Stir it in quickly and then pour over the popcorn in the pan. With a large spoon, stir the popcorn until it is coated with the caramel. Try to be quick. Then spread the caramel corn out on a prepared surface, a buttered counter top or parchment paper. After the crackerjacks completely cool, break it apart and store in an airtight container. If you want peanuts in your crackerjacks, mix the peanuts in with the popped corn before adding the caramel.
Reading the recipe is making me ready for crackerjacks, but I doubt I get around to making them this year.
So what’s your favorite Christmas treat that your mom or someone in your family made? Do you still make it now?
As always thanks for reading.
Comments 13
Our mother made sugar cookies which we helped decorate. I carried on the tradition when our children were young but stopped a long time ago. No children to eat them and if I bake my husband and I have no will power and you can guess the end result. I love all the fancy Christmas cookies and will sample if I’m at a party but that’s the extent of my indulgence. 😕 Crackerjacks sound great! Thanks for the recipe. Merry Christmas! 🌲
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I quit making most of the Christmas candy I used to make for the same reason, Karen. I didn’t need all those calories and the kids weren’t here long enough to eat it for me. 🙂 In fact, after the big Christmas meal, they usually don’t have much room even for the Christmas cookies. But I still make them and a cake too. At least so far. Hope you have a very merry Christmas.
I do order a Happy Birthday Jesus cake from a local bakery and have done for as long as our 14 yr old grandson arrived. Only an eighth of a sheet. I’ll try to send you a picture of last year’s if I can figure out how. Probably by email…….
My daughter and I made some peanut butter fudge yesterday, which made my husband and son very happy! 🙂 My favorite thing to make though is sugar cookies. My great-grandmother used to make the best ones and she usually had them available year round. I don’t have her recipe, but found one that is close. I think what mostly made hers so good though, was the love from her that went into them. She was a special lady and I miss her so much. Your story about your mom is very sweet and she looks like she was a very special lady too. 🙂
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My aunt who was like a grandmother to my sisters and me made what they called tea cakes. They were thick sugar cookies but not as sweet as most. I make them sometimes for strawberry shortcake cookies. They are yummy with strawberries. I didn’t like them that much when I was a kid. I guess because I loved sweets and I thought they needed more sugar. 🙂 I thought about making fudge today but made cookies instead and had a zillion other chores too before my daughter and son in law come tomorrow.
I always enjoyed my mom’s cakes she made from scratch, especially the coconut cake and coconut pound cake. I haven’t made these recipes myself, I usually just take a short cut and use cake mix.
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My aunt or mom never made coconut cakes, but my aunt used to make a burnt sugar cake with banana slices in between the layers and some kind a yummy icing. I wouldn’t even attempt to make that although I remember how she burned the sugar in a pan on the stove, Connie.
I never made crackerjack , but when my kids were little I made popcorn balls. The recipe is about the same, but instead of spreading the mixture out, you form balls while it’s still hot. I wore buttered vinyl gloves for that. The kids decorated the balls…Santa, snowmen, even cookie monster once for a birthday party.
Thanks for sharing, Ann. As always, I enjoy reading all the comments.
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Today, I have four grandsons here. Pancakes have been demolished, and now we have puzzles being put together. Cleaning and cookie baking will wait til tomorrow.
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We never made the popcorn balls, Lavon. Easier to eat the crackerjacks, I guess. Plus, for this recipe you would have had to be extra quick to make the balls. It hardens fast. I’m sure your kids had a ball decorating those popcorn balls. And somebody got to clean up the mess, but sometimes those messes are worth it. 🙂
Anne, at 2:37 am, I am just now seeing this! Thanks so much for the crackerjack recipe! I already have everything I need to make it, except, the candy thermometer! Hopefully, this weekend or next, I will have some time to make the crackerjacks. I have been trying to finish making snow globe ornaments for each of my students tonight. I will be able to finish them tomorrow night after the special glue sets for 24 hours. If I don’t forget, I will take a picture of them. I also have a “goodies” bag filled with a mixture of toys, cups, a couple of pieces of store bought candy (state law requires it has to be wrapped, store bought food) and a book! The bag itself has a coloring picture on it with markers to color it in later! Better stop writing and go to bed now. I have to go to work tomorrow. I do get Christmas Eve and Christmas day off and New Year’s Day off; but, not New Year’s Eve.
Thanks again for the crackerjack recipe! I really appreciate it!
I hope you have a very, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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You are so good to your students, Linda Dianne. I’m guessing they will love those treat bags and the snow globe ornaments. Please share a picture. I’d love to see them. Not that I’m crafty enough to make them, but I like to admire the things other more crafty people make. LOL.
I hope the crackerjacks turn out okay for you. A hint I should have included in the recipe is that they always do better if it’s a dry day and not damp. That might not be as true with our modern houses, but Mom always tried to pick a dry day for her crackerjack making and for making divinity too.
When my mother was in high school, her Home Economics class would take recipes from the school cafeteria, break them down to make 36 cookies rather than several hundred. One of those recipes she still makes to this day; one of my siblings & I “fight” over them, still!
It is a rolled sugar cookie that incorporates brown sugar & butter…my mouth waters just thinking of them!
BTW, my mother will be 80 in 2019!
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Seventy-nine and still making cookies you all fight over. That’s the way to add on the years and keep doing what you love. Besides, eighty isn’t as old as it used to be since most of us are healthier and living longer. I hope your mom makes one hundred, Laura. Your mom’s school must have had good cooks.