July 4th and Paper Candy

Posted by Debbie Kwiatoski Jul 4, 2007

July 4th, Independence Day in the United States and – usually - a time for picnics, parades and fireworks. Coming to America as immigrants just before World War II, my Armenian family always seemed to have a strong connection to this day, as they embraced all things American, finding in that newly found loyalty the promise of a life free from the fear of a knock on the door in the middle of the night. As a child, my grandmother had seen her father dragged away “for questioning,” never to be seen again, as the Young Turks burnt the Christian sections of Smyrna (now Izmir) to the ground in 1923. Years of life in refugee camps followed and then – finally – passage to America, as the Nazis moved into Greece and threatened her family’s life once again. Whatever cracks might appear in the great American Dream, they would survive and celebrate life.

July 4th was just another excuse for a celebration – and a picnic. But if our friends might be in their backyards grilling hotdogs and hamburgers and eating potato salad and deviled eggs, our family usually had a different spread on the picnic table: fragrant shish kebab was on the charcoal, hummus, baba ganoush, oil-cured black olives, string cheese and pide were the appetizers, along with tons of a lemony tomato and cucumber salad, tabbouleh, and lots of fresh fruit. Even if we had hamburgers –as we occasionally did – they were typically seasoned with Chaimen, rather than the usual salt and pepper. “Armenian hamburgers,” my father would joke.

This feast was usually washed down with liberal pitchers of tahn, an icy yogurt drink, and my grandmother’s trademark ice tea. Hers was not the usually brewed tea over ice – or even the minted or “sweet tea” my friends’ mother’s would make. Hers was really more of a fruity tea punch, with the freshly squeezed juices of oranges and lemons mingling with the strong black tea and (quite a lot) of sugar. This wonderful concoction was served in pitchers loaded with ice to keep it really, really cold. It was better than Coca Cola or even 7-Up, which was her favorite “American” drink, actually.

After the last kebab was consumed and the last bit of tomato salad, with its spicy lemon/olive oil/onion/parsley dressing sopped up with the last bits of pide, Grandma would usually have one last sweet surprise for us: “paper candy” rolled with walnuts.

I have tried for years to recreate my grandmother’s paper candy, to no success. Basically, it is a kind of candy “leather” – but not the fruit leather typically seen in stores today. Its basic ingredients were sugar, grape juice, cornstarch, lemon juice and rose water. The mixture was boiled into a very thick and heavy syrup in a big kettle and then spread on clean, cotton sheets (kept for this purpose) and dried upstairs in an airy, but unused bedroom. After several weeks of curing, the concoction could be peeled from the sheets, dusted with more cornstarch (to keep it from sticking) and then cut into big squares and stored in an airtight container. It was delicious when you tightly rolled a line of walnuts up in it and ate it like a big, sweet “burrito.” Being so hard to make, it really was kept for special occasions, like Independence Day.

Like I said, I know the ingredients and, as a kid, watched my grandmother make it many times. But I would give anything for better directions than I remember – or a more precise recipe…anyone out there ever heard of such a treat? Email me!