HOMEMADE HARD CANDY

Our first attempt at ho-made candy was (mostly) a success! Made the lemon batch first, but didn't have enough corn syrup and didn't boil long enough, so it didn't set up. We weren't sure it would work to put it back on the stove, with the food coloring and flavor already added (as they are supposed to go in after taking the pot off the heat) but it did work! These hard candies are HARD! The pink ones are raspberry flavored.




Here's the recipe- it's super easy, but you have to boil it for a long time.

1 cup white sugar
3/8 - 1/2 cup Karo (corn) syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4-1/2 tsp flavored extract
1-2 drops food coloring
1-2 Tbsp powdered sugar

Put the sugar, corn syrup and water in a pot over medium heat, stir until sugar is dissolved, then let it sit and boil. And boil. It needs to get to 300 degrees F. It will start to look thick, and if you drop a bit into a glass of water, it should form hard brittle threads. If you drop some in water and you can't decide if it's hard brittle threads, then it isn't. Keep boiling.

When it's 300 degrees, turn off the heat and add the flavoring and food coloring. Stir quickly but thoroughly.

When you pour the candy out (we greased waxed paper and laid it right on the counter) it will look very bubbly. The bubbles seem to disappear as it sets up, but you want to see thousands of tiny bubbles when you pour it out. In about a minute or two, run a pizza cutter through it to cut into squares, diamonds, triangles...the shape is up to you.

If it's not setting up, by all means pour it back in the pot and try again! The waxed paper made this easy. We just folded the paper into a cone and let it run back into the pot. Then I ran two fingers down the length of the paper to squeeze out as much as I could. Toss that paper and grease a new sheet while it reboils.

Let it cool. It will be hard! Pull up on the waxed paper and rows of it will start to pop off. Break along the scored lines, drop into a baggie with 1-2 Tbsp of powdered sugar and shake to coat. (This is a good step for an excited little helper to do...or your husband!)

One batch makes enough to fill a 10 or 11 oz. jar. I heart fancy jam that comes in these cute, reusable square jars!