Making Hard Candy

[goboenomo]

So I want to make some hard candy (just in case the title didn't give that away).

The recipe I'm looking at right now is *Hard Candy*
I was wondering if anyone has a better suggestion of a recipe I can use, and I also needed to know what this root beer flavour is.

It's 3.7 mL Root Beer flavour, it contains: water, propylene glycol, artificial flavour, caramel color, polysorbate 80. LorAnn Gourmet, if that means anything.

Is this a concentrate? Should I use the whole 3.7 mL in this recipe?

Thank you in advance.

goboenomo

[jkath]

Hey Gobo - long time no see! Nice to have you back.

Since you're using a LorAnn product, why not try this recipe from their site:
LorAnn Oils - Consumer Website

Best of luck to you :)

[goboenomo]

Thank you for the quick and useful reply, jkath.
I think I will do this tomorrow when I get up, provided I can get some corn syrup.

[goboenomo]

I have another quick question.

Does the candy thermometer need to be in the mixture the whole time? Or can I just put it in after some time to see if it is getting close to 300 degrees?

[meshoo96]

You should leave it in. You can never tell what temp candy is just by looking at it and if it gets too hot, you will burn it.

[goboenomo]

True, any suggestion of something I can do to keep it from touching the bottom aside from having to stand there holding it the whole time?

[meshoo96]

The one I have has a hook on the side of it to clip onto the pan. If you don't have that, see if you have a piece of wire hanging around and make a hook. Just make sure it has the strength to hold the thermometer. 32 gauge would help.

[jkath]

Here's a good one:

[meshoo96]

This is the one I have and it has markings for the hardness/softness of candy from taffy to soft ball to hard ball. Leaves a lot of guess work out of it.

[goboenomo]

So I changed my mind, and I made it tonight.


The 2nd picture is my candy thermometer. I ended up standing there and holding it in place.