Aine, those do sound good. I think what we have in our recipe books is more like peanut brittle, with a hard toffee as for toffee apples run out on a tray with nuts in it, and subsequently smashed up with the rolling pin. Always seemed to me like too much work for little return. Now yours, on the other hand ... So what is the vanilla pudding and pie filling?

The soft brown sugar I use is the texture of Barbados, but sand coloured, and with a less strong molasses flavour, more fudgy. Barbados would work, but with a different result.

I have now found the secret recipe given to me by the school cook, scaled down from 300 children's worth.

I small can of evaporated milk. (This is the size that holds about a cup. (I have a set of measuring cups, but I'm not sure how compatible they are with USA cups.) 4 oz soft brown sugar.

Whip the milk till doubled in volume, beat in the sugar until fudgy in texture, pour into pastry case, and put to set in a warmish oven.

No one I know has been able to trace the connection with gypsies. We also have gypsy cream biscuits (cookies) like little sugary graham crackers sandwiched together with a creamy coloured cream in the style of Oreos. Again, their connection with gypsies seems slender. About as convincing as any connection of Bourbon Creams and Garibaldi biscuits with Italian wars.

Penny