Very original question... not only to the discussion.

Maybe some clues for further research can be found in the materials on these sites:

http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/ ~ lwittie / sca / food / dessert.html

http://seattletimes.com/html/traveloutdoors/2003109144_websteves05.html

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcandy.html

http://what-when-how.com/junk-food-and-fast-food/chocolate-confections/

http://www.scatoday.net/node/5321

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081030-oldest-candy-facts-halloween_2.html

Thank you Andrzej!

Not exactly on that, but I am reading a very interesting book at this moment and it might be useful for you:

Norton, Marty (2008). Sacred gifts, Profane pleasures: A history of tobacco and chocolate in the atlantic world. Cornell university press: Ithaca and London.

Hello Cristina. I know this book. It is a very good work!

You may also be interested by this one:

http://tinyurl.com/n4avxrp

Christian

Have you had a chance to read the book published by John Wiley & Sons in 2009: "Chocolate: history, culture, and heritage", whose editors are Louis Evan Grivetti and Howard-Yana Shapiro?

Thanks a lot for the reference, Christian.

Yo creo que podían ser de tu interes los trabajos que yo mismo he realizado sobre dulces y alimentación en la Navarra (España) entre los siglos XVI-XX. Están colgados en Researchgate. Fernando Serrano-Larráyoz

I think it could be of your interest the work that I have done on candy and food in Navarra (Spain) between XVI-XX centuries. They are hung on ResearchGate. Fernando Serrano-Larráyoz

Thanks a lot Fernando!

I really liked the themes you research!

Muchas Gracias Fernando!

Me gusta mucho los temas que usted investiga!

Another book of interest (in French) is: Frédéric Duhart, "Le Chocolat au Pays Basque (XVIIe-XXIe siècle) à Bayonne Oñate", Donostia, Elkar, 2006. (ISBN: 84-9783-381-3). Similarly, in the National Library (Madrid) there are numerous books that reference the chocolate from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. URL: http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/webcat

Again, thank you Fernando!

We are looking for recipe books of the sixteenth century make reference to the sugar ingredient .

We are prioritizing Spanish and Portuguese cookbooks .

We'll take a close look at the National Library (Madrid).

The most important book on aconfitería XVI century: Miguel de Baeza, "Los quatro libros del arte de la confitería", Alcalá de Henares, Casa de John Graciá, 1592. It is very difficult to achieve, but I have it photocopied.

Similarly important is the book of John Valles, "Regalo de la Vida humana". The study of the confectionery of this book has been published in "Confitería y gastronomía ("libros" IV-VI) en el 'Regalo de la vida humana' de Juan Vallés" where there is a bibliography interesting (the work is hanging on ResearchGate). The transcript of the book (which is published) I have not hung on imperative Researcgate by the publisher. URL: https://publicaciones.navarra.es/TiendaPublicaciones/obraCompleta.faces?id=660

Best regards

Another article on sweets in the books of the National LIBRARY (Madrid http://www.bne.es/es/Micrositios/Exposiciones/Cocina/documentos/cocina_estudios_2.pdf