Easy Homemade Hard Candy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How is hard candy made? ›

Recipes for hard candy use a sugar syrup, such as sucrose, glucose or fructose. This is heated to a particular temperature, at which point the candy maker removes it from the heat source and may add citric acid, food dye, and some flavouring, such as a plant extract, essential oil, or flavourant.

In hard candy making, it is important to cook all the water out of the sugar/corn syrup/water mixture. If the sugar mixture is not cooked to the proper temperature (the hard-crack stage 300-310° F {149-154° C.} or if you are working in a kitchen with high humidity, chances are your candy is retaining too much moisture.

Most candies will keep 2 to 3 weeks (if not longer) if stored tightly covered in a cool, dry place or in the refrigerator. It's best to avoid storing different types of candy together in the same container because hard candies will become soft and sticky, and soft candies will dry out.

Hard candy making is easy, but does involve high temperatures. Caution should be used at all times when cooking and handling the hot sugar. Have a bowl of ice water on hand just in case of accidental exposure.

Sugar, mainly sucrose from sugar beets or sugarcane, is the major constituent of most candies. Other sweeteners employed in candy manufacture include corn syrup, corn sugar, honey, molasses, maple sugar, and noncaloric sweeteners. Sweeteners may be used in dry or liquid form.

It is simply to add tartness to add some balance against the sugar. The water from the vinegar will evaporate and leave behind acetic acid. There is an old fashioned type of hard candy known as vinegar candy.

Cream of tartar can prevent your homemade hard candy, caramel, and toffee from forming a gritty texture due to sugar crystallization. Adding a pinch of cream of tartar to your sugar syrup will help break down the sugar molecules and stop them from crystalizing early on.

It's the high concentration of soluble solids that makes them hard; incorporating air and fat, meanwhile, makes the texture soft enough to chew. The science of candy-making is complex (and fascinating), and understanding a few basic concepts will give you the knowledge you need to get started at home.

Not cooking the candy all the way to hard crack stage can make it more sticky. High humidity in the air can make it sticky.

If the candy forms thick threads when it drips from the spoon, it is in the hard ball stage or 250°—265°F. If you gather the candy mixture into a ball it will be a hard ball. Divinity or rock candy is typically cooked to this stage.

How do you cut hard candy? ›

Use a Pizza cutter to score the candy vertically into the size of piece you prefer, we do about 1" pieces. If the candy is still too hot the lines will ooze back together and will need to be gone over again. When the lines hold their own you can continue with the horizontal cuts.

The longer sugary substances stay on your teeth, the higher your chances are of cavity-causing bacteria wreaking havoc. Hard candy may be the most dangerous because of its ability to break teeth, especially baby teeth. Hard candies also tend to be more of a choking hazard since they're not easily broken down.

Drop a little of the molten syrup in cold water and it will form hard, brittle threads that break when bent. CAUTION: To avoid burns, allow the syrup to cool in the cold water for a few moments before touching it! Toffee, nut brittles, and lollipops are all cooked to the hard-crack stage.

Candies that are both hard and sugary pose multiple threats to your teeth. The sugar of these candies cause tooth decay and can lead to more serious problems. Chewing these hard candies exposes your teeth to chipping or even tooth damage. You could even cut your mouth if you are not careful.

Stir white sugar, corn syrup, and water together in a medium saucepan. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to a boil. Without stirring, heat to 300 to 310 degrees F (149 to 154 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads.

JOLLY RANCHER candies are manufactured by creating a solution of corn syrup, sucrose, glucose, or fructose syrup that is boiled to a temperature of 160 °C/320F and cooled to create a supersaturated mixture that is roughly 2.5 percent water.

The hard, shiny shells on candies are often made from shellac, a resin secreted by the lac bug. You may know shellac from its more famous work in varnishes and sealants, but it's also a mainstay in pill coatings, candy, coffee beans, and even the waxy sheen on apples and other fruits and vegetables.

Eating hard candies is also bad for your jaw because it requires a lot of chewing and can irritate the gums and other soft tissues of your mouth. Hard candies also conduct more heat than soft candies, and this can burn your sensitive oral tissues.