Monday, December 21, 2009

Hard Rock Candy

I like hard rock candy. It's fun to make this time of year. It makes good little gifts to give. It is something nice to sit on your desk at work to share with your co workers. When giving it as a gift, put it in small jelly jars.


I will share with you a quick way of making it.

Gather confectionery sugar, flavorings, food colorings and sugar. There are many flavors to choose from, cinnamon seems to be the favorite at our household, we also like root beer, but I couldn't find any at the store. I made cinnamon and orange this time.


Stir together: 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup light corn syrup in a large microwaveable glass bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes.



Remove from microwave, take off the plastic wrap and stir again.




Put a new piece of plastic wrap over the bowl and microwave for another 3 minutes. Watch it the last 30 seconds or so, depending on your microwave, it may get too hot and burn the sugar. I took mine out with about 10 seconds to spare. Be careful taking off the plastic. . . the hot steam will get you if you don't watch out!


Add the food coloring and flavoring and stir. My recipe says to add 1/2 tsp of flavoring, but if you want a more intense flavor, just add the entire 1 fl dram bottle. Be careful with the cinnamon, the scent is pretty intense when you put it in.

Pour it out onto a cookie sheet or other container. The package of the flavorings says to put it on a greased cookie sheet. I probably do not need to tell you this but, DO NOT PUT IT ON ANYTHING TEFLON COATED. Quickly, spread it out a little and after waiting a few minutes, score it with a knife. It cools around the sides quicker than in the middle. You will have to keep going over the score marks while it cools. Let the candy cool and break it into pieces.


Here is my cinnamon batch.



Break it into pieces and coat it with the confectionery sugar.


This is not something to let children do. They may get burned. They can help you break it into pieces. If you have any, you could pour the mixture into lightly oiled lollipop molds for the little ones.

Is this something you make during the holidays?

10 comments:

  1. That looks so easy and fun to make, I'll have to give it a try!

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  2. Hey Janet!

    That looks so easy to make. I've never made hard candy before. My only problem with being able to make your recipe would be that I tossed my microwave a few years ago because it broke. I never replaced it because I never use it except to warm up water.

    I think the next time I'm out at the store I'll try to get some flavorings to try to make some.

    Thanks for the recipe!

    Merry Christmas!
    Angela

    ps: This is funny! My word verification word is
    cooko

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  3. My husband LOVES hard candy..I'll try this..thanks.

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  4. I used to make hard candy every year for the holidays. All kinds of flavors.
    It's so hard to find the flavorings down here that I finally gave up.

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  5. I haven't made hard rock candy for years. It looks real easy with the microwave. I don't have a microwave either, though.

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  6. I wanted to make rock candy last year and never got too-and I haven't this year either. I love to eat it though : ) My hairdresser gives out little jars of it each year.

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  7. Sister S makes this for me and I like the cinnamon best. I keep a small tin in my purse just in case my numbers end up going a little low. It's fantastic! Thanks for sharing the recipe with us Janet. Merry Christmas to you and yours, and a safe and healthy Happy New Year! xxoo

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  8. I don't think we've made rock candy since our kids were young...
    I remember John making it while I was at work. Tania helped. I think they put too much cinnamon in it and it about burned their eyes out. Tania still makes it every Christmas.

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  9. Janet-fascinating technique. I'm going to try and remember to do it this way. Looks like I commented on it way back then but then forgot all about it LOL : )

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