Family tradition is a recipe for sweet success

Caramels made from a family recipe handed down through three generations have amassed quite a following for Kara Wolfe, owner of Cassie’s Candies and Creations in Bolivar. Wolfe’s late great-grandmother was local cooking legend Cassie Mase, for whom the company is named.

The Wolfe family lived in a number of places around the globe as Kara grew up, but summers were often spent visiting Granny in Bolivar.

“I always knew at some point I wanted to come back here where things are slower and there’s more space,” said Wolfe, who most recently lived in Texas.

Wolfe’s mother Sheila is the daughter of the late Paul R. “Dick” and Catherine Hennis Mase of Bolivar. Cassie Mase was his mother.

“When I moved here, I wanted a fresh start,” Wolfe said. “But I also wanted to connect to my roots because I’d never been able to spend time with anyone here on a daily basis. I discovered a lot of people in the area were really missing Granny’s caramels, so I’m trying to keep that legacy alive.”

Wolfe recalls helping her great-grandmother bake pies but had no idea how to make her famous caramels and peanut brittle. She found the caramel recipe in her great-grandmother’s house after she passed away.

The recipe listed the following ingredients: sugar, glucose, cream, butter, vanilla and nuts (optional) — no measurements and no other instructions.

Wolfe knew whom to turn to for the details. Sandy Keener Finlayson, who married Tedd Finlayson and became the granddaughter-in-law of Mase, had learned at the feet of the master.

“Cassie was still making and selling the candy, but she was slowing down with age,” she said. “I wanted to learn how to make the peanut brittle. So I went over, and we made 18 batches while my kids were in school one day, and she hardly helped at all. I ran around all day, but by the end I knew how to make her peanut brittle.”

Finlayson said Wolfe visited her house twice to learn how to make the caramels. Last winter the two focused on making peanut brittle. “There’s a knack to pulling it as thin as Cassie did, but Kara will keep at it until she gets it,” Finlayson said.

The result

Cassie’s Candies and Creations sells the original-recipe caramels in plain and pecan, along with flavor concoctions of her own including bourbon, coffee, spicy and salted.

“My newest flavor is a jalapeno-bacon caramel,” she said. “Caramel is a great dessert because it opens up your palate to other flavors. It enhances the flavor that comes next in your mouth. So with the jalapeno, you get the spicy first, the sweet and then the savory bacon.”

In addition to online sales, Wolfe takes a pop-up booth to local festivals and other events to get her products into the hands of more customers.

“I love doing the pop-up events,” Wolfe said. “People tell me stories about their families because the caramel flavor is helping reconnect them to their past.”

Wolfe said she likes to experiment with special foods just for the festivals, such as caramel-drizzled marshmallows and a treat she calls caramel nachos.

“I take Granny’s pie crust recipe and crisp it up, cut it in triangles like little tortilla chips, douse them in cinnamon and sugar, and drizzle the caramel sauce over them. I have no baking culinary background — just her recipes and a desire to create. Every time I step into that kitchen, I’m like, ‘Alright Granny, come on and help me out,’” Wolfe said.

Mase passed away in 2006 at the age of 97. “I think she would have lived longer, but she developed macular degeneration and was pretty much blind,” Finlayson said. “Once she couldn’t make her pies anymore and have people who bought them come visit her, she really started going downhill.”

Wolfe is keeping Mase’s legacy alive and introducing people who never knew her to the culinary wonders of Cassie Mase.

More information can be found on Facebook, and orders can be placed at www.cassiescandiesandcreations.com.