[Stovetop] Pourable Hard Candy

For The Offspring's birthday party, we have a mold with 2 of every letter that is meant to be filled with melted chocolate, my guess. We do outdoor birthday parties and the birthday is in late July, so melted chocolate would be melted chocolate still. And so instead, we pour hard candy over the mold and get hard candy letters. They don't melt in the summer heat.

We usually bake our own home cake and frost it, then plunk "[Name] IS [age]" on top in candy letters and consider the cake to be decorated. The remaining letters are given away as favors; it is always interesting to see the thoughtful deliberation guest children make as to which of the candy letters they select.

As this is my recipe book, hosted online, and thus available for all, I am keeping our winning recipe here. If you want to copy our family's zero-waste/ingredients-household/frugal vibe, here are some links to help you out:

Onward to the recipe!

Table of Contents

Ingredients

Materials

Method

  1. Into the smallest saucepan you've got, add in this order so that you can keep reusing the 1/4 cup measuring cup, the white sugar (1 cup), light corn syrup (1/4 cup), and water (1/2 cup). And for those who have said, "When will I ever use fractions in real life?" that means with a 1/4 cup measuring cup you put in 4 of those in white sugar, 1 of those in light corn syrup, and 2 of those in water.
  2. Using your silicone spoonula, mix thoroughly. The sugar will not dissolve and so it should all come together into a wet-sugary mess quite quickly.
  3. Put your candy thermometer into the pot and adjust the clip so that it is not touching the pot's bottom but sits just slightly above that. This ensures you are going to know the temperature of the candy and not of the burner. If you are using an instant read or ice water bowl, skip this step.
  4. Put the pot with its goo and thermometer onto a stove burner set to medium-high. Allow it to heat to the HARD CRACK temperature as informed by the candy thermometer. If using an instant read thermometer, you are looking for 310 degrees F. For me, this took 25 minutes to achieve. If you are using a bowl of ice water, please learn how to determine if you are at the hard crack stage by clicking here.
  5. While the candy is cooking, let's prepare our candy mold situation. Put the mold on top of a sheet of parchment paper. The parchment paper will protect your surfaces from any spill-over. If you want a second layer of protection such as putting everything inside a sheet tray, you'll want to do that at this point as well.
  6. Once the goal temperature has been reached. Remove the pot from the heat, don't just turn off the burner.
  7. To the pot, now add the peppermint oil (1/4 tsp) and food coloring (14 drops) and stir to even coloring with the silicone spatula.
  8. Now, quickly, pour the liquid candy into the mold, spreading the candy with the silicone spatula to ensure it gets into every mold cavity. Pour any excess onto the parchment paper to create a big candy blob for later snacking.
  9. Walk away and let the candy cool. Unmold when cool. Say, "Look, I just made my own peppermint flavored Jolly Rancher."

Notes

Exceeding the hard crack stage of candy making will result in caramelization, rather than melting, of the sugar (going over 350-degrees Fahrenheit will burn the sugar).

At the hard-crack stage, almost all of the water has boiled off the sugar, resulting in a thick syrup. When this syrup is dropped into a bowl of ice water, it will instantly cool and harden into thin, brittle threads. These threads will crack and shatter when they are bent. If you don't have a cooking thermometer of any kind, check on your candy mixture at the 10 minute point and then 5 minute points thereafter with the ice water test.

It is possible to make hard candy without the light corn syrup but that will take longer. The corn syrup is there to shorten the process. The Offspring is demanding so we appreciate a shorter process. You can leave it out if you desire as the sugar and water are already to candy ratio.

To clean your pot, if the dishwasher won't do it, then just soak until the hard candy has all dissolved. Adding water via soaking takes the candy back down through the candy phases, albeit slowly from hard crack to soft crack to hard ball to firm ball to soft ball to simple syrup, and finally to sugar water which is where you can clean the pot. You can drink your sugar water if you'd like.

bibliography. Candy guidance was provided by It's Always Autumn and ThermoPro.

CookLang

---
title: Pourable Hard Candy
source: https://theinfamousj.github.io/ExecutiveDysfunctionRecipes/stovetop-pourable-hard-candy.html
author: TheInfamousJ via Autumn
tags:
- dessert
- frugal
- ingredient or component
- vegan
---

Into the #smallest saucepan you've got{}, add in this order so that you can keep reusing the #1/4 cup measuring cup{}, the @granulated white sugar{1%cup}, @light corn syrup{1/4%cup}, and @tap water{1/2%cup}. 

Using your #silicone spoonula{}, mix thoroughly.

Put your #candy thermometer{} into the pot and adjust the clip so that it is not touching the pot's bottom but sits just slightly above that.

Put the pot with its goo and thermometer onto a #stove burner{} set to medium-high. Allow it to heat to the HARD CRACK temperature as informed by the candy thermometer.

While the candy is cooking, prepare the #candy mold{} situation. Put the mold on top of a #sheet of parchment paper{}. The parchment paper will protect your surfaces from any spill-over. If you want a second layer of protection such as putting everything inside a sheet tray, you'll want to do that at this point as well.

Once the goal temperature has been reached. Remove the pot from the heat, don't just turn off the burner.

To the pot, now add the @peppermint flavoring oil{1/4%tsp} and @food coloring{14%drops}(to eye) and stir to even coloring with the silicone spoonula.

Now, quickly, pour the liquid candy into the mold, spreading the candy with the silicone spoonula to ensure it gets into every mold cavity. Pour any excess onto the parchment paper to create a big candy blob for later snacking.

Walk away and let the candy cool. Unmold when cool. Say, "Look, I just made my own peppermint flavored Jolly Rancher."