Happy President’s Day! I figured in honor of today I would bring something in tribute to Mr. George Washington’s wife. Some of you may not know but I had the pleasure of looking through Martha’s Cookbook what an honor and how interesting it was to see all these recipes first hand. Here is a delicious recipe that was made supposedly in tribute to Martha Washington. It is very similar to some of the candies she use to make.
Ingredients:
1 cup of Margarine (room temp, I used unsalted butter instead)
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk
2 cups of shredded coconut
2 cups chopped pecans
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Optional: 1/4 cup of fat-free milk (This was not part of the recipe but I wanted my chocolate to get creamier so I added)
Preparation:
Line 2 cookie sheets with wax paper. Mix margarine or butter, sugar and sweetened condensed milk in large mixing bowl. Add coconut, pecans, and vanilla; mix well, using a large wooden spoon. Chill until firm enough to handle.
Form into small balls and place on prepared cookie sheets . Chill until very firm. (My husband got a little carried away and made them bigger, haha)
Melt chocolate chips in top pot of double boiler; over simmering water (making a ganache sauce). Using a toothpick, dip balls into melted chocolate. Let cool on wax paper.
I hope you enjoy these little treats as much as we did.
Homemade Delish 
This sounds great, but…there was no such things as margarine in Martha’s time! In fact, most of these ingredients were not widely available. What happened here? Were her recipes altered for contemporary cooking?
Hi There, Yes this was made into a contemporary candy. This candy was a tribute to her some say. There were lots of candies just like this in her cookbook. The cookbook was actually her mother in laws from her first marriage which was passed down to Martha. She kept it after she married George. These recipes and ingredients that were used back then were all from England and Europe. A lot of the ingredients could not be found in the Americas back then. My wording might have been a little off so I changed it. Thanks for pointing that out. 🙂
Ah, I wondered if that were the case. Looking forward to trying these and seeing more recipes from the past. 🙂
HAHA! I was thinking the same thing about the margarine and other ingredients. Glad you clarified. I too, have a cookbook with some of her recipes that have been modified for contemporary cooking. Most of us wouldn’t know where to get the ingredients she had to cook with. lol