Tag Archives: lollipops

Champagne Rainbow Hard Candy

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Soundtrack: Happy Birthday to Me, The Vandals 

finished hard candies

Supplies:
3qt saucepan
measuring cups/spoons
lollipop molds and sticks
various additional molds
candy thermometer

Ingredients:
2 c sugar
1 c light corn syrup
1/2 c water
1/4 tsp flavoring (champagne)
assorted sprinkles/coarse decorating sugars

ingredients

combine sugar, corn syrup and water in saucepan. stir to combine and heat until sugar dissolves. wash down sides with pastry brush and increase heat to medium. cook until mixture reaches 300degrees.

extract

remove from heat and stir in champagne extract.

pouring

pour mixture into lollipop, silicone, plastic molds – that have all been sprayed with nonstick spray and filled with sprinkles.

sprinkling

sprinkle with more sprinkles/sugar. (yes i did forget to fill that one on the top left)

excess

pour remaining mixture onto silpat and top with more fun sprinkles/jimmies and let cool. once cooled remove from molds (carefully) and break up hard candy block into pieces.

noms

Lessons Learned:

  • it works best if there is already sprinkles in the molds before you pour. then top with more sprinkles before the candy hardens to get a pretty looking finished product
  • the round rainbow sprinkles showed up better than the coarse colored candy sprinkles
  • the sugar mixture seemed to continue to cook even after i pulled it off the heat. as i was pouring it into the various molds the color kept darkening and resulted in an inconsistent looking/tasting candy. not sure how to fix this…

ombre

  • this recipe makes a ton of finished product – i really need to buy more lollipop molds

Review: pretty looking but not my favorite tasting. best to let the candy dissolve rather than try and chew since it’s the kind of candy that gets stuck in your teeth. actually most candies seem to do this…i like the sprinkles better than jimmies but figured i’d try something different with all of the excess sugar mixture. more caramel tasting than champagne-y but i think that is because the sugar kept cooking for so long off the heat.

Butterscotch Candies

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Inspiration: 2012 Golden Globes – ie. pretty gold colored candy treats

finished butterscotch

Supplies:
3qt saucepan
measuring cups/spoons
silpat lined cooking sheet
various molds
candy thermometer

Ingredients:
2 c sugar
2/3 c heavy cream
2/3 c water
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
6 Tbs butter (cut into small pieces)
1/2 tsp vanilla

ingredients

combine sugar, water and cream in saucepan. stir to combine. wash down sides with pastry brush and turn on heat to medium low.

cooking

slowly bring to boil until thermometer reaches 240degrees. drop in cut up pieces of butter – do not stir! 

cooking

continue to boil (again not stirring! do not let the left in spoon confuse you!) until mixture reaches 280degrees. turn off heat and stir in vanilla.

molds

pour mixture into lollipop, silicone, plastic molds – that have all been sprayed with nonstick spray. yes it’s a messy step.

cooling

pour remaining butterscotch mixture onto silpat and let cool. once cooled remove from molds (carefully) and break up butterscotch block into pieces.

noms

Lessons Learned:

  • just be patient when letting mixture reach it’s final temperature. it’s tempting to stir once the butter is dropped in…but don’t. i stayed strong and managed not to stir.
  • the candy worked really really well in the molds, much prefer that to the broken up pieces.
  • for some reason when i was getting all of the butterscotch mixture out of the pan the final pour looked like this:

not pretty

i’m not sure if it had cooled too much and i should have poured left to right rather than straight down into one big pool o’scotch…once broken up the outer smooth sides of the candy were a lot harder, whereas the milky looking center had more of a grainy fudge (but still kind of hard) consistency.

Review: really rich and buttery tasting. like i said the molds turned out awesome and are really pretty. reminds me of the amazing butterscotch candies in the gold foil. the softer center parts from the big pour are tasty but i like the harder smooth consistency best.

Coffee Lollipops

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Soundtrack: Pork and Beans, Weezer

finished coffee lolli's

Supplies:
baking sheet covered with silicone mat and staggered lollipop sticks
lollipop molds and sticks
candy thermometer
pastry brush with water
measuring cups/spoons
3qt saucepan
large spoon
heatproof silicone spatuala
Ingredients:
1/2 c coffee
3/4 c plus 2 Tbs sugar
3 Tbs corn syrup
1/8 tsp kosher salt

molds

prepare lollipop molds and silpat with staggered sticks (pic later in post)

ingredients

measure out coffee, sugar (plus salt) and corn syrup

cooking

bring coffee, sugar plus salt, and corn syrup to a boil – 280degrees stirring occasionally. aprox 15min

finishing

finishing

take off heat and spoon mixture into molds. seriously this is really difficult to do without making a mess. (luckily when you unmold the excess kind of breaks away)

finishing

spoon on to silicone mat covered baking sheet. again, i went with the rustic look

finishing

i also thought i’d try making hard candies using a Fleur de Lis chocolate mold tray

finished coffee candies

this was a horrible fail

Lessons Learned:

  • buy second lollipop tray or try to reheat excess finished mixture and fill a second time after first round cools
  • spray candy mold to see if that helps release hard candies easier??
  • make sure lollipop sticks are fully covered with sugar mixture – move them up into mold after candy is poured if necessary

Review: this does not really translate to hard candies (as opposed to lollipop) – the temptation is to bite and chew the candy, but it winds up stuck in your teeth. as a lollipop the coffee flavor is pronounced and you avoid this mess. i’d be happy with this as a pick me up in the afternoon as opposed to another cup of coffee, not to mention the sugar rush.