Penny Candy

There were several neighborhood stores where I grew up near Fillmore and Clinton Streets in Buffalo, New York. One was Felski's (near Eagle and Smith Streets), where I would go to get a quart of milk for my mother when I was only five, and it cost a quarter. Another was a place that my father called Pani Sunshine, Pani being the Polish word for Mrs., and Sunshine because the lady there was so sour-pussed. I forget their last name, but her son's name was Freddie, and he lived with his mom all of his life. She was a squat Polish-American lady with frizzy hair and he was a trim, dark-haired guy with a mustache. The store became known as Freddie's after a while, because he more often manned the store over time.


(It used to be so neat and tidy--how it's deteriorated; sad)

I got to thinking about Pani Sunshine the other day because my son was given a trinket in a treat bag at a birthday party, a little plastic guy with a parachute. I recalled vividly how I used to buy those at the corner store, along with balsa wood airplanes, Bomb Pops (when I had enough money--they were a whole quarter) and tons of penny candy, which was truly one cent each. I loved the little red fish, which are now known as Swedish fish, probably the best. We also got Tootsie Rolls (another favorite), hard candies, licorice, nougats, and so many others.

Where we live now, unlike where I grew up, there is no corner store, no full grocery store, no butcher, no pharmacy, no mom-and-pop cleaners, no office supply/toy store, no dentist, no wedding gown shop, no liquor store, no beauty salon, no gas station. You scarcely had to leave my neighborhood to engage in commerce of just about any stripe. The old neighborhood is completely cut off from the rest of the city by viaducts over which, back then, trains rumbled by day and night. In fact, the backyard of the first house that I lived in was bordered by a train track. I remember listening to the deafening roar of the train as it sped by at crazy speed in the middle of the night and, to this day, that sound (in the distance now) never fails to soothe me to my core. An older child may have been afraid of such a racket, but my infant ears knew nothing else and it meant night-time and peacefulness to me.

We lived in four houses in that neighborhood over the years, and my father lives in yet another there now. The third house that we lived in, on James Street, is occupied by my aunt, uncle and cousin--still in the family. That is the house that is around the corner from Pani Sunshine (on the corner of Eagle and Montgomery Streets), but the store closed down long ago, as have most of the others in the neighborhood.

From time to time, I have tried my hand at making candy, with mixed success. When homemade candy turns out well, it is a stunning bit of kitchen magic. Fresh candy is vastly superior to most commercially-made candy mostly because the factory-made stuff just isn't fresh enough to be great. I tend to only buy and eat candy around candy-themed holidays like Halloween and Easter because that's when you can get the freshest batches. An elusive quality evaporates quickly in candy almost just as much as it does for baked goods.

There are lots of great candy recipes in cookbooks. You can make your own marshmallows, nut brittles, chocolate-covered nuts and fruits, candied popcorn, candied fruit peels, caramels, truffles, hard candies and lollipops, rock candy, and on and on. I have a couple of books devoted to candy recipes, The Antoinette Pope School Candy Book from 1949, and Candy from the Good Cook series from Time-Life (1981). But there are candy recipes in The Joy of Cooking, many of Maida Heatter's books, many of Martha Stewart's books, and scattered around in all manner of cookbooks, here and there.

Here's a an easy recipe for Chocolate Armagnac Truffles from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics. There is a whole chapter devoted to candy in that book, including recipes for caramels, fudge, pralines, nut brittles, popcorn balls, almond nougat, toffee and fruit jellies. If you try the truffle recipe, let me know what you think of it.

Chocolate Armagnac Truffles

Makes 5 dozen

12 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Armagnac (brandy or orange liqueur may be substituted)
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted

1. Chop chocolate and place in a large heat-proof bowl. Bring cream to a boil in a small, heavy saucepan; pour over chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in liqueur. Refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.

2. Scoop up 1/2 teaspoon chilled chocolate; quickly roll into a ball. Continue until all the mixture is used. Place cocoa powder in a bowl; roll truffles in cocoa to coast. Chill until firm. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.