Sunday, December 14, 2008

Sweet Treats for Teens


If you believe the women’s magazines and promotional cookbooks of the 1950’s and 1960's, the way to get teenaged girls interested in cooking was by appealing to the sweet tooth that all teenagers in those days—who subsisted largely on a diet of vanilla Cokes and ice cream sodas—were known to have. Understanding moms helped their daughters’ coolness quotients by allowing them to make lots of sugar-loaded treats for slumber parties and impromptu sock hops down in the rumpus room. This chapter (from a 1967 Nestlé’s pamphlet called Plain and Fancy), guaranteed adolescent popularity with a dozen pages of instructions for teen-pleasin’ concoctions. My teeth hurt just from reading them.

Circus Flip

Place in a small bowl
-2 T. peanut butter

and blend in gradually
-¼ c. milk

Combine in a covered 1 ½ quart refrigerator container, and stir to blend
-3 ¼ c. milk
-peanut butter mixture
-8 heaping t. Nestle’s Chocolate Quik

Cover and chill. Shake well before serving. Makes 4 servings.

Choco-Scotch Treats

Combine and melt over hot (not boiling) water
-1 6 oz package (1 c.) Nestlé’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
-1 6 oz package (1 c.) Nestlé’s Butterscotch Morsels

Stir in and blend well
-3 c. oven-toasted rice cereal
-1 c. salted peanuts

Press into greased 9” square pan. Chill till set. Cut into 1 ½” squares.

Scrabble Squares

Melt over hot (not boiling) water
-1 12 oz jumbo package (2 c.) Nestlé’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
-2 T shortening

Combine in bowl:
-1 6 ¼ oz package (about 3 cups) miniature marshmallows
-2 c. coarsely-broken pretzels

Add and fold in carefully till blended
-Chocolate mixture

Spread evenly in foil-lined 11 x 7 ½ x 1 ½ inch or 9 inch square pan. Chill till firm. To serve, let stand at room temperature a few minutes; remove from pan, then cut into squares. Store in refrigerator.

Black-Eyed Chew-‘Ums

Combine and melt over hot (not boiling) water; stir to blend
-1 6-oz pkg (1 c.) Nestlé’s Butterscotch Morsels
-½ c. peanut butter

Remove from heat.

Add and mix till well coated
-1 ½ c. corn flakes
-1 c. miniature marshmallows
-½ c. raisins

Drop by well-rounded teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper-lined cookie sheets. Chill till set.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well as it's early and my breakfast of coffee and nicotine isn't much better, I remember my sister making some of these (she's 8 years older) and I remember laughing when she was doing them in 80-81.(I was 5-6 and even then my idea of entertaining wasn't goop dropped on wax paper.)

I wonder who comes up with this stuff?

Lidian said...

The last thing those teens need to to be getting hyped up on all that sugar! :)

Anonymous said...

Well, Hmmm I would imagine it's better for them then all those new high energy drinks their sucking on now... I personally don't remember any of those sticky sweet things being offered to me but I still lost teeth so maybe I did miss out on something good ;)

Rochelle R. said...

The scrabble squares might be pretty good, a nice combination of sweet and salty. As for the drink, no thanks.

Shay said...

I know...peanut butter has its place but not in a soda.