Anyone who knows me, knows I just absolutely can NOT follow a recipe exactly as it's written. I have to add this or that or do something different. So here's what I did.
I used 1/2 c of honey like the recipe called for and did all of the heating/stirring, BUT I added these ingredients.
About 26 10 mg of Zinc- I bought the tablets and ground them up in my little Silver Bullet using the flat blade.
1/4 c. of Elderberry Syrup
Juice from 1 lemon
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's her basic recipe and directions I used:
Cough Drop Lollipops
The good news is that cough drops are incredibly easy to make! I found the original recipe at Little House in the Suburbs and when I saw someone mention lollipops and idea was born. Naturally kids need cough drops too but I don’t like giving my kids itty bitty pieces of hard candy. Cough drop lollipops are a logical solution. Cough drops on a stick.
½ cup to 1 cup honey (honestly any amount would do probably)
Candy thermometer (optional)
Lollipop sticks
Lollipop mold (although if you do not have a mold you could make free form lollipops by pouring the honey over the stick on a non-stick surface)
Cook-
Pour honey into small saucepan and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and bring honey to a boil. If using candy thermometer, insert in and continue to stir the honey until it has reached a temperature of 300 degrees. Remove from heat and move to test phase. If not using the candy thermometer then continue cooking and occasionally test. Just don’t wait too late to test; testing too early is better then testing too late.
Pictures of mine~ Everything, including the zinc powder. The powder eventually dissolves.
About 45 min. later- getting very close!
Test –
To make sure your honey has reached the right consistency, place a drop or two of honey into a cup of ice water. If the honey turns and stays hard (like a hard candy) then you are good to go. If it is still soft then you need to keep cooking a bit longer.
Making the Lollipops –
With Molds- Grease lollipop molds and insert sticks so that they are ready in the mold. Pour honey into mold and let cool at room temperature. (No cheating and putting them into the fridge. It won’t work)
Without Molds- Lay lollipop sticks on a greased non-stick surface such as a silicone mat or parchment/wax paper. Carefully pour honey over each stick, creating a free form lollipop.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not a candy maker. I had NO IDEA just how long it would take for this to reach 300 degrees- 45 minutes. So don't start out with a short metal teaspoon like I did. Also, when popping them out of the molds, especially if you make drops (without the sticks), they will fly, be careful. Speaking of molds, make sure you get the ones for hot candy. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby- I bought one for lozenges and one for lollipops. This recipe filled those just fine- I think I had about 6 lollipops and 18 lozenges.I do have one question for those who are candy makers- okay, actually I have a couple of questions:
1. How do you keep it from scorching once heated but needing to spoon into the molds. I can't keep stirring and pour into molds as the same time. I scorched the 1st batch, so for the second batch, I poured it into a pyrex glass pan. I might as well have just made a brick- it solidified almost immediately. I still got most of it out and into my molds.
2. Once it was cooled and I popped them out of the molds, I stored them on a plate, to which they adhered themselves to, better than any glue I've ever seen. How do you keep candy from getting so sticky?
Overall, they tasted really good, Eli loved them and I found them to be very soothing for my throat. I would make them again because practice makes perfect and these are just too good to not perfect!
No comments:
Post a Comment