Hard Candy

This weekend is my offical baking weekend of the holidays. I have been so excited about it!!! I am making quite a few different things but today is candy day. : ) I started with hard candy. I LOVE hard candy but had never made it. I was nervous to make it for some reason but it turned out really easy. The key is having a good candy thermometer and having patience : )


Also, thanks to Nikki for all of the great tips for my during the cooking process - she is like a 24 hour baking help hotline!

Here is a picture of the hard candy actually right after I poured it onto the cookie sheet to cool.

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
1 cup water
1 tablespoon orange, or other flavored extract (I used strawberry for this particular batch)
1/2 teaspoon food coloring (optional)
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting



Directions
In a medium saucepan, stir together the white sugar, corn syrup, and water. 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.


Remove from heat and stir in flavored extract and food coloring, if desired. Pour onto a greased cookie sheet, and dust the top with confectioners' sugar. Let cool, and break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.




Tips: Some Nikki tips - do not add the flavoring until the bubbles have gone down in the boiling mixture. Also, if you get some of the mixture in your pan and it gets hard before you clean it, run really cold water over it to make it crack and it will come off. I had to actually pick at mine with a butter knife to get some of it off, but it's not so bad.


Pig Rating: (Hasn't tried it yet)


Mrs. Pig Rating: I love it! : ) I think it is so pretty and it is such a great Christmas candy. I am going to make strawberry, butter rum, peppermint, and root beer. Mmmm.....




Recipe from allrecipes.com, pictures from my kitchen