Womens' Colleges Chocolate Recipes

[eredien]

Does anyone know why these particular fudges are named after Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley? I haven't seen these recipes elsewhere, and hope that if somebody knows more, they'll share with me!

- Vassar Fudge
- Smith College Fudge
- Wellesley Marshmallow Fudge
- Bryn Mawr Hepburn Brownies

The three fudge recipes below are from the booklet "Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes by Miss Parloa and Home Made Candy Recipes by Mrs. Janet McKenzie Hill," which was put out by the Walter Baker & Co, Ltd. chocolate company in 1909.

Vassar Fudge
2 c white sugar
1 tbsp butter
1 c cream
1/4 cake Baker's Premium no 1 chocolate

Put in the sugar and cream, and when this becomes hot put in the chocolate, broken up into fine pieces. Stir vigorously and constantly. Put in butter when it begins to boil. Stir until it creams when beaten on a saucer. Then remove and heat until quite cool and pour into buttered tins. When cold cut in diamond-shaped pieces.

Smith College Fudge
Melt one-quarter cup of butter. Mix together in a separate dish one cup of white sugar, one cup of brown sugar, one quarter cup of molasses and one-half cup of cream. Add this to the butter, and after it has been brought to a boil continue boiling for two and one-half minutes, stirring rapidly. Then add two squares of Baker's Premium No. 1 Chocolate, scraped fine. Boil this five minutes, stirring it first rapidly, and then more slowly towards the end. After it has been taken from the fire, add one and one-half teaspoonfuls of vanilla. Then stir constantly until the mass thickens. Pour into buttered pan and set in a cool place.

Wellesley Marshmallow Fudge
Heat two cups of granulated gusar and one cup of rich milk (cream is better). Add two squares of Baker's Chocolate, and boil until it hardens in cold water. Just before it is done add a small piece of butter, then begin to stir in marshmallows, crushing and beating them with a spoon. Continue to stir in marshmallows, after the fudge has been taken from the fire, until half a pound has been stirred into the fudge [!]. Cool in sheets three-quarters of an inch thick, and cut in cubes.

Bryn Mawr Hepburn Brownies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup unsweetened cocoa (preferably Dutch process)
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups broken walnuts or pecans
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
butter to grease the pan

1. Preheat oven to 325 deg. F
2. Butter the bottom and sides of a 7 x 11-inch baking dish.
3. Melt the butter and cocoa together in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir until smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.
4. Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Add the sugar, flour, nuts, vanilla, and salt. Stir until well blended.
5. Pour into greased pan.
6. Bake for 45 minutes. Don’t overbake or the brownies will be dry; they should be very moist.
7. Let the brownies cool completely on a cooling rack before cutting into bars of desired size.

Comments

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

Found a blurb here:
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/fudge/

[eredien]

Thank you! I didn't know that fudge was really basically a "new" thing in 1909! And I can easily imagine making 30 lbs of fudge for a school auction!

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

I don't know these particular recipes but I suspect they were submitted by almunae with fond memories of making them in their dorm rooms, possibly with ingredients purloined from the dining halls. I've read novels from that era where college or prep school students made off with butter pats and a sugar bowl from the dinner table and had a midnight ilicit fudgemaking party over the fire.

The brownies seem a bit more ambitous, though, requiring actual flour, not to mention an actual oven. Did any on-campus students have access to an oven at that time? The Hepburn name makes me think on-campus rather than someone local. I'd bet someone in the Archives would know the origin of this one.

[eredien]

I *thought* that maybe they had access to ovens in the 30's--that'd be a question for the archives.

[eredien]

Amazingly, the link cited by thoughtsdriftbyabove has a Vassar song about fudge.

What one sweet solace serves for all
The woes, that can a maid befall,
While she sojourns in classic hall?
Fudges.

[dalbino83.livejournal.com]

I'm a voracious collector of Mount Holyoke memorabilia. A 1908 scrapbook in my collection has a recipe for Opera Cream:



Opera Cream. 2 cups gran. sugar 3/4 cup milk (condensed if desired) 1/4 cake chocolate. vanilla & nuts if desired. Boil the sugar, milk and chocolate until it gets the least bit sticky when you put it in water. Then put it aside to cool. When it is fairly cool, put in vanilla & nuts & beat it until your arms break off. Then pour it into a pan or drop it on buttered pan or paper If you don't succeed at first, try, try again.

Here's a 1904 article about the college girl and her chafing dish parties (where fudge was made): http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~dalbino/books/text/whc.html

[eredien]

Thank you! I like how "beat it until your arms break off" is actually in the original recipe. :D

[eredien]

I friended you and sent you a PM; I can't believe we don't already know each other somehow, but it must be true!