Best 4 Lemon Hard Candy Recipes

LEMON DROP CANDY RECIPE

Steps:

• Squeeze lemons until you get 1 cup of fresh juice.
• Combine lemon juice and sugar and stir to dissolve.
• Boil mixture until thick and syrupy-about 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly. Test the syrup by dropping a small bit into cold water-if it crystallizes and becomes brittle, it's ready!
• Spray down a mini muffin tin or silicone mold with cooking spray and add heated mixture to the tin/mold. Fill each mini muffin cup less than halfway full, or fill small silicone molds about ¾ full. (I used a cooking syringe to help transfer my syrup into the silicone molds.)
• Transfer filled molds to the fridge to cool until hardened, ~1-2 hours.
• Pop out and enjoy!
• Yields 30 homemade lemon drop hard candies.

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.

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.

HONEY GINGER HARD CANDY

Steps:

• WARNING - Making hard candy, you will be working with extremely hot ingredients. Be very careful not to burn yourself!
• Prep - Set out the candy molds. For easy clean up, lay parchment paper under them.
• Heat - In a small saucepan, heat the honey, water, ginger and sugar over medium heat. Using a candy thermometer, watch it, stirring frequently until the thermometer reads 300 degrees. As soon as it reaches 300 degrees, immediately remove from heat. Let the honey mixture sit a few minutes until the bubbles go down.
• Stir - Add in the lemon essential oils (if using). Stir to mix.
• Pour - Working quickly and VERY carefully, spoon the hot honey mixture into the candy molds. Fill all of the molds to the tops.
• Let sit and harden for 1 hour. Pop out of the molds.