Candy, candy everywhere. I love Halloween, and buy lots of candy for Halloweeners. I eat a little of it (well, maybe a lot, if not many kids come to the door). While browsing through hundred-year-old magazines this fall, I saw this advertisement for Oh Henry! candy. It even included recipes for ice cream sauce and sandwich cookies that called for using Oh Henry! as the main ingredient. I immediately planned to buy a bag of Oh Henry!
A few days later, I was disappointed to discover that Oh Henry! candy is no longer available in the U.S.
I still wanted to make the recipes in the advertisement. Baby Ruth is a similar chocolate nougat candy with peanuts, so I bought a bag of snack-size Baby Ruth, and substituted it for Oh Henry! in the recipes. (Other chocolate nougat candies such as Snickers would also work.)
The ice cream sauce was made by melting the candy and stirring in a little milk. The sauce was delightful when spooned over ice cream. It was chocolaty and contained lots of peanuts.
The sandwich cookies were made by putting thin slices of the candy between two vanilla wafer cookies, and then heating until the candy melted. The old recipe says to serve the cookie sandwiches hot, but they were also tasty after they cooled.
Here are the recipes updated for modern cooks:
Chocolate Nougat Candy Ice Cream Sauce
4 snack-size bars of Baby Ruth candy (or other similar chocolate nougat candy)
1 – 3 teaspoons milk
Chop the candy into small pieces. Put chopped candy into a microwaveable bowl, then cover. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and add a small amount of milk while continuing to stir. Continue adding small amounts of milk until the sauce is the desired consistency. Reheat in microwave for a few seconds; then, while still warm, spoon over ice cream and serve.
Chocolate Nougat Candy Sandwich Cookies
3 snack-size bars of Baby Ruth candy (or other similar chocolate nougat candy)
24 vanilla wafer cookies
Thinly slice the candy. (Each bar can be sliced into 8 pieces.) Put two slices of candy side by side on top of half of the wafer cookies. (If the wafers are very small, use less candy.) Put the remaining wafers on top of the candy. Put the cookie sandwiches on a microwaveable dish; cover and microwave for 30 seconds. If the candy filling is not melted, microwave a few additional seconds.
So 1925 you sliced instead of breaking the bars down…. I wonder how big they where then?
I do remember the bars being larger.
I used small snack-sized Baby Ruth bars that came in a bag. Each bar was flat on the bottom and rounded on the top. When making the sandwich cookies, it worked perfectly to thinly slice them. Each slice was a half circle. There are a variety of vanilla wafers that could be used to make these cookies, but the ones I used were the perfect size for me to put 2 half-circle slices of candy next to each other to create a circle. I then covered with another wafer.
I’m not sure exactly how big candy bars were a hundred-years-ago, but assume they were larger “full-sized” candy bars than what I used. Your comment led me to do an online search to try to figure out how big candy bars in the early 20th century. I didn’t find the answer, but I did find a fun article on the Daily Meal site: 17 Candy Bars That Have Been Around a Lot Longer Than You Realize
I enjoyed the line in the ad about the sandwiches being “nutritious but light.”
I noticed that too. LOL
It’s good advertising copy. 🙂
I had no idea that Oh Henry was no longer made in the US.
I also was surprised that they were no long made. I haven’t eaten any Oh Henry candy in years, but remember liking them and had been hopeful that I’d be able to buy it.
Oh my, our Oh Henry, Oh Henry moments are now lost to history! ❤️
Just knowing that I can’t buy Oh Henry candy makes me feel very nostalgic about it. I’m trying to remember what it tasted liked, its texture, how sweet the chocolate and nougat were, and so on.
Both ways of using the candy look very good. It’s hard to beat anything made of candy.
Both recipes are tasty. Candy does make things better.
Looks like a fun, yummy recipe!
It was. These recipes are a fun way to use left-over candy.
November 1st, February 15th, and December 26th absolutely for the discounted candy. Thank you for sharing these recipes
These are good dates to remember. I should add them to my calendar (though my diet might be better if I forget them). 🙂
Needless to say, we have no idea here about Oh, Henry, or Baby Ruth. Your recipes sound perilously sweet!
🙂 On a somewhat different note, I recently came across an essay in the Pennsylvania Gazette about how British punctuation differs from U.S. punctuation that you might enjoy: Point, Counterpoint
How interesting! Thanks. I – being British – follow the British way, but can totally understand why Americans use a different system. Luckily, in this case, we can understand each other very well. Phew!
My sense is that a lot of Americans also like the British punctuation protocols. 🙂
Just as in our turn, we look to America for all kinds of things in the spelling and grammar department!
Love this
It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this post.