Old-Fashioned Hard Candy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How was 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.

Hard candy is primarily made of fructose and glucose syrups mixed with purified water, flavorings, and colorings. Each ingredient needs to be prepared and heated according to the specifications for the desired product, before being mixed together.

If the candy cools too quickly, set it on a saucepan over hot water to soften it, but if it gets sticky, return at once to the work counter. Toss in a small amount of powdered sugar to keep from sticking together.

300° F–310° F

The hard-crack stage is the highest temperature you are likely to see specified in a candy recipe. At these temperatures, there is almost no water left in the syrup. Drop a little of the molten syrup in cold water and it will form hard, brittle threads that break when bent.

The first candy was used by the Ancient Egyptians for cult purposes. In ancient times, Egyptians, Arabs, and Chinese made candies with fruits and nuts that caramelized with honey. The two oldest candy types are licorice and ginger.

Jolly Ranchers are also the hardest of the hard candies—they're like concentrated and pressurized diamonds of fruity sugar.

How it helps Candy Making. Adding cream of tartar when you're making candy helps prevent the creation of sugar crystals. That's why lots of icing, syrup or candy recipes call for it: it makes it so the end product doesn't have large crunchy sugar capsules.

Jolly Ranchers

But we still think some other varieties of candy are significantly more delicious than the beloved Jolly Ranchers. Jolly Ranchers candy is easily one of the best candy options that you can opt for. Frankly, there's a reason why Jolly Ranchers were the best-selling hard candy on Amazon as of January 2023.

Corn syrup is a common ingredient in many hard candy recipes because it is an invert sugar. Invert sugar inhibits the formation of sugar crystals and provides a smooth texture to hard candy, caramel, and other cooked sweets.

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.

What does vinegar do to candy? ›

the vinegar, or other acidifier such as ascorbic acid or lemon juice, helps the sugar inversion process. It also helps preserve the mixture.

This process adds air into the existing candy. With. aerating, the candy expands with air pockets which. will add a crunchy texture.

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.

*Most often when you see this white powder around hard candy, it's corn starch. Many sweets are made in 'molds' of corn starch.

The idea for Hard Candy came from a news story producer David W. Higgins saw on 20/20 about young Japanese girls who would lure older businessmen to a location with the promise of meaningful conversation, only to assault and mug the men with a gang of other girls.

Islamic writers in the early 9th century described the early production of rock candy that was made by sugar crystals forming from the cooling of a highly-saturated sugar solution. This would create rock candy sticks, that were perfect for adding sweetness to tea.

A supersaturated solution is unstable—it contains more solute (in this case, sugar) than can stay in solution—so as the temperature decreases, the sugar comes out of the solution, forming crystals. The lower the temperature, the more molecules join the sugar crystals, and that is how rock candy is created.

The process of turning sugar into a hard, smooth, transparent confection involves heating a sugar/corn syrup/water solution to 300 – 310° F. {150 - 155° C.}, or what is known as the hard crack stage of sugar. The use of a candy thermometer is not essential, but highly recommended and accuracy is critical.