My Valentine's Day Candies

This Valentine's Day was special to me being it's the first Valentine's Day I've been able to bake in my new kitchen! So I went a little overboard.

A few days before the big day I decided to make some Valentine's Day Candy for my 3 nieces in Ohio. Of course that means sending by mail so I had one day to complete, pack and mail on Monday or else the goodies would be late. And Aunt Michelle is never late!

Candy is so easy, just sugar, water, flavoring and food coloring. I love making it but my husband and I rarely ever eat candy. So I am thankful I have 3 gorgeous nieces to spoil.

I decided to make lollipops and drove to Michael's to buy a lollipop mold. Luckily Michael's is only about 5 minutes from my house. So I bought the mold, lollipop sticks and some cinnamon flavoring.

But this was too easy and I knew I could finish these without even thinking about it. I had to do something unique, something that had my signature on it. Hmmm...maybe a horizontal lollipop?

I started opening and closing all my kitchen cabinets and drawers trying to find something that could work as a mold. I was getting nervous as I only had a few more cabinets to open when I came upon my stack of mini tart molds.....perfect!!! My dear friend sent me the tart molds. Thank you Maryanne!!!


Candy Making Essentials:

Heavy pot
Wooden Spoon
Candy Thermometer
Mold


Considerations:

You will need a candy thermometer as you must bring the syrup up to a temperature of 300 degrees or hard crack stage. If you do not reach the hard crack point your candy will not set and if the temperature rises above hard crack the syrup will burn.

Bringing the syrup to the Hard Crack Point is the most difficult thing about making candy. DO NOT leave your kitchen when the candy is on the burner. DO NOT answer the phone. DO NOT clean out your kitchen junk drawer. You must keep your eye on the hot syrup and the thermometer and occasionally stir the syrup.

I found a wonderful web site On the Fast Track to Hard Candy which is a treasure trove of information on hard candy making.


HARD CANDY RECIPE

2 cups sugar
2/3 cups light corn syrup
3/4 cups water
1 tsp flavoring
Food coloring

Options: Chocolate and Confections for decorating

Lightly spray the mold(s) with Pam and wipe out any extra oil with a paper towel.

Mix the sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to just a hard simmer. Watch the thermometer carefully and stir regularly. When the thermometer reaches 300 degrees/hard crack, remove the pan from the heat and add the coloring and flavoring.

You must work quickly now as the syrup will start setting up as soon as you remove it from the heat. I used a small ladle to transport the syrup and fill the molds and it worked out very well.

As soon as the candy starts setting up place the lollipop stick. The stick may move a bit, but just hold it in place for a minute or so. When the stick holds in place, move the candy to the refrigerator for a final cooling. The candy will be totally cooled in about 10-15 minutes. Remove the candy from the refrigerator and gently pop the candy from the mold. VIOLA...you've made a Lollipop.

My cast iron pot of hot boiling candy syrup!

Here's my work area for the Big Heart Lollipops.

The finished Heart Lollipops.

My work area for the Parasol Lollipops.

The Parasol Lollipops all finished!!! Aren't they cute!!!




Here are all the Lollipops wrapped with ribbons and ready to go!!

The Lollipops were so easy and fun to make. They arrived the day before Valentine's Day and my nieces loved them! They were a huge success...not bad for a last minute idea!!

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