Classic Christmas Hard Candy Recipes

CHRISTMAS HARD CANDY

Steps:

• In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Cook on medium-high heat until candy thermometer reads 300° (hard-crack stage), stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat; stir in oil and food coloring, keeping face away from mixture as the scent of the oil is very strong. , Immediately pour onto an oiled baking sheet. Cool; break into pieces. Store in airtight containers.

HARD CANDY

Steps:

• 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.

OLD-FASHIONED HOMEMADE HARD CANDY

Steps:

• In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup. Cook, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved; then cook without stirring, lowering the heat and cooking more slowly during the last few minutes, to the hard crack stage (300 degrees F), If sugar crystals form on sides of pan, wipe them off with a damp brush.
• Remove from heat, add oil flavoring and enough food coloring to color; stir only to mix. Pour into 2 well buttered 9 inch pans. Set one pan of candy over a sauce pan containing hot water (unless you have a helper to help cut the candy). As soon as the other pan of candy is cool enough to handle, cut it with scissors into 1-inch strips. Then snip the strips into pieces. Work fast. Drop the pieces onto a buttered baking sheet. 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. Repeat with the second pan of candy.

CHRISTMAS HARD CANDY

Steps:

• Put a couple of LIGHTLY oiled and then wiped out, 10" frying pan (metal--not cast iron) in the freezer for 20 minutes or so before starting the candy (one for each batch).
• Put the confectioners sugar in a bowl and put on the table where you will be working with the candy.
• Put the Karo syrup, sugar, and water in a large saucepan; bring it to a boil and cook over medium heat till thermometer reaches 300F to 305F (hard crack stage).
• Immediately take off the stove and add the flavoring and the food coloring.
• Pour into the cold pans and wait till it starts to set; it will cool around the edges first.
• When it does, start picking up and snipping with scissors to desired size.
• Put into the confectioners sugar and leave there, tossing every so often, till you are done.
• When that particular flavor is done, put the candy in a sifter and sift the confectioners sugar off and put into a clean bowl; save this sugar for the next batch.
• AMOUNT OF OIL FLAVORING THAT I USE:.
• cinnamon--scant 1/2 teaspoon (deep red); lemon--full 1/2 teaspoon (yellow); anise--full 1/2 teaspoon (blue); lime--full 1/2 teaspoon (light green); spearmint--exactly 1/2 teaspoon (dark green); orange--full 1/2 teaspoon (medium orange); clove--level 1/4 teaspoon (this flavor is very strong--no color).

30 BEST CHRISTMAS CANDIES (+ RECIPE COLLECTION)

Steps:

• Select your favorite recipe.
• Organize all the required ingredients.
• Prep a candy treat in 30 minutes or less!

OLD-FASHIONED RIBBON CANDY RECIPE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Prepare four cookie sheets by spraying them with nonstick cooking spray or covering them with a light layer of oil.
• Preheat oven to 200 F. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring continuously, until sugar dissolves.
• Insert a candy thermometer and continue cooking without stirring until candy reaches 285 F (soft-crack stage).
• Once the proper temperature is reached, remove candy from heat immediately and stir in peppermint extract.
• Pour 1/3 of the mixture onto a prepared cookie sheet and place it in the heated oven to stay warm.
• Pour another 1/3 onto a second sheet and sprinkle green food coloring on top. Place this sheet in the oven as well.
• Add red food coloring to remaining 1/3 of candy.
• Pour candy out onto a marble slab or heat-safe cutting board. Allow it to sit briefly until it forms a "skin."
• Spray a bench scraper or heat-safe spatula with nonstick cooking spray, and use the tool to begin spreading candy out and pushing it back together, working it across the board and allowing it to cool. Don't forget to check out the instructions showing how to pull candy if you get confused about the process.
• As soon as the candy is cool enough to handle, but still quite hot, begin to pull it. If you have plastic gloves, put them on and spray the gloves with nonstick cooking spray-this will help prevent overheated or burned hands. Take candy in both hands and pull hands in opposite directions, stretching candy into a long rope.
• Bring ends of strands together and twist candy into a rope.
• Then pull rope out into a long strand.
• Continue to twist and pull candy until it has a satin-like finish and is an opaque red color.
• Once candy is still pliable, but barely warm, pull it into a strand about 2 inches thick, and place it on remaining prepared baking sheet. Put this sheet back into oven, and remove baking sheet with uncolored candy syrup. The pulled candy will remain pliable in the warm oven while you work the second portion.
• Repeat pulling procedure with the second, uncolored portion of candy. In the end, candy should be a pearly white color.
• Form into a log 2 inches in diameter, just like red candy.
• Repeat pulling procedure with last, green portion of candy. In the end, candy should be an opaque and satiny green color.
• Form into a log 2 inches in diameter.
• Remove candies from oven. Cut a 5-inch segment from each of the green, white, and red logs, and place them next to each other on fourth greased cookie sheet, with the white in the middle.
• Begin to pull candies together, gently molding them together as candy gets thinner. Try to end up with a very thin piece of tri-colored candy 1-inch in height.
• Once twisted candy is the shape you want, use oiled kitchen shears to cut them to into approximately 6- to 8-inch lengths.
• Immediately push them into a ribbon shape and place them on a baking sheet to set at room temperature.
• Repeat pulling and cutting with remaining candy.
• If candy gets too hard to pull, place in the warm oven for a few minutes to soften, but don't let it sit too long and melt.
• The ribbons will get very hard at room temperature, but if left out for long periods of time they will get soft and sticky, so be sure to wrap them in cellophane once set.