Candy (Zuckerwerk)

While the economic environment of rich Pennsylvania county towns like Reading, Lancaster, and York could support professional confectioners and a wide array of sweet goods, the targeted market was the urban middle and upper class; the situation was quite different in rural households and in general home cookery. It was common for rural Pennsylvania Dutch to buy confectionery from shops only for seasonal occasions like Christmas—marzipan and clear toy candies are prime examples—otherwise confectionery in the home was more or less based on molasses, since it was cheap when in season during cold weather. See molasses.