Homemade Hard Candy Recipe

Today I am making hard candy.  Mostly because I can.
 

Raspberry hard candy

Yesterday, while deep cleaning, we found a candy making kit that one of my boys received as a gift quite a few years ago.  There were a couple activities still in the kit so Jesse and I decided to try the lollipops.  


Sugar keeps forever, but the flavored dye was questionable.  We used it anyway.  The candy turned out pretty good, but tastes like cotton candy, which basically tastes like sugar and dye.  
 So, today, I am trying the recipe again and using my own raspberry flavoring.

Below is the recipe.  

Very important tip:  watch the mixture while it is boiling.  
Burnt sugar has a very unpleasant smell!  
Yes, I know this because I burned the first batch today.
 

You want a nice rolling boil.  Watch it closely, you don't want to burn it.  Trust me on this.

If you make this with your children, it is a good experiment to show that hard candy is just sugar.  Pure sugar.  Not good for you at all.

HOMEMADE HARD CANDY

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1/3 cup water
couple drops food coloring (optional)
1 tsp flavoring

Place the sugar, corn syrup, water, and coloring in 1 qt saucepan (non-stick works great).  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Boil until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer (can't live without my candy thermomter) or hard crack stage.  This will take about 15 minutes, but be sure to watch it.

While mixture is boiling, prepare candy mold * by spraying with oil.

Remove from heat; stir in flavoring.

You can ladle the mixture into the molds.  I pour the mixture into a measuring cup with a spout and then pour the mixture into the molds.
 

This is a chocolate mold, but it works for hard candy, too.

Candy will harden in about an hour at room temperature.

Pop candy out of molds.  You can dust with powdered sugar to keep them from getting sticky, but mine didn't seem sticky, so I didn't.

*If you don't have candy molds, the candy making kit says, "Pour solution onto a greased cookie sheet (I would use a pan with sides).  Allow the liquid to harden slightly, then cut it into ribbons one inch wide using scissors or a knife."

This is the batch made with the old flavoring.  Even though it looks black, it might be purple, or maybe blue.  We think it was supposed to be grape flavor.