Making a homemade hard candy recipe is simple, and it’s very simple to alter its flavor and color to your preference. Your family will love this recipe for hard candy.
Hard candy is a type of sugar confection that is boiled and typically has vibrant colors that gradually melt on your tongue, similar to Jolly Ranchers.
To achieve the desired combination, color it with food coloring and add your preferred flavor oils or extracts.
Ingredients
To make a homemade hard candy recipe, you need the ingredients we have listed below.
- 5 to 6 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 to 2 teaspoons of anise, lemon, or orange extract
- Red, yellow, or orange liquid food coloring, is optional
Directions
The directions for making the perfect homemade hard candy are written below:
- Confectioners’ sugar should be poured into a 15 x 10 x 1-inch pan to a depth of 1/2 in. Make a continuous, curved indentation in the sugar with the handle of a wooden spoon; set the pan aside.
- Mix the water, corn syrup, and sugar in a big, heavy saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. To dissolve any remaining sugar crystals, cook covered for an additional three minutes.
- Remove the cover and continue cooking over medium-high heat without stirring until the candy thermometer reaches the hard-crack stage, which is 300°. Take off the heat and, if desired, stir in the food coloring and extract.
- Pour cautiously into a measuring cup made of glass. Pour swiftly into the pan’s prepared indentation. Dust candies with powdered sugar. Use scissors to cut the candy into pieces once it’s cool enough to handle. Keep enclosed in a container.
Combinations of Flavors for Hard Candy
Here are some ideas for flavor and color combinations for this candy recipe:
- Peppermint/Pink
- Cinnamon/Red
- Spearmint/Green
- Lemon/Yellow
- Grape/Purple
- Anise/Dark Blue
- Orange/Orange
- Butter/Light Yellow
- Butter Rum/Yellow, Brown
- Sassafras/Light Brown
- Cherry/Red
- Raspberry/Blue, Red
- Clove/Gold
- Chocolate/Brown
- Wintergreen/Pale Green
- Lime/Pale Green
Some Culinary Tips to Making Hard Candy Recipe
The following are helpful tips to make the perfect Hard candy:
- Before you use any pots or Pyrex, make sure you have a big pot of water simmering on the stove to help wash off the syrup. This is very useful because it is nearly hard to get hardened syrup out of a pot.
- Pour the flavored syrup into a 4-cup heat-resistant glass container that has been sprayed with canola oil before transferring it to the sugar troughs.
- To shape the candy strips, dust a cookie sheet with a good amount of powdered sugar and use a thick plastic hanger to create troughs. This aids in producing pieces of somewhat uniform size.
- Three cookie sheets should be ready for one batch. We use the following dimensions for my baking sheet: 15.25″ x 10.5″ x.75″.
- After you have emptied the syrup onto the troughs, put the glass container back into the pot that is simmering. By doing this, the remaining candy will dissolve and the glass container will be ready for the subsequent batch.
How Much Flavoring for Hard Candy?
For this recipe for hard candy, you can use any flavor you like, and you can also adjust the amount of flavor you use.
The ideal candy oil is one that is highly concentrated and can withstand heat without losing flavor. Generally, you’ll use one Tablespoon of flavoring for “regular” strength and a teaspoon for super-strength flavoring.
Although extracts are less effective, they are still functional and can be found more easily.
