I love to make suckers, or lollipops as some say. This is another fun treat that I would beg my Mom to help me make for friends for the Christmas season. My Mom has a lot of treats up her sleeve.
My mom purchased these sucker molds many many moons ago and they look very ancient. But they work great. I also made some that don’t use molds and they were fun. To purchase some stainless steel mold like these, check Get Suckered or Sugar Craft.
You need to get everything ready before you start, because once your sucker liquid is hot and ready, things get moving fast. You need, molds, sticks, a couple of spoons, flavoring, food coloring, sauce pan, candy thermometer, and a pan lined with wax paper. Okay, that seems like a lot of stuff, but it is all worth it.
Get your molds set up, sticks and all. This recipe yields close to 24 suckers. Sticks come in all sizes. Walmart sells them, and most other craft stores. You will also want to have your food coloring and flavoring on hand and ready. My favorite flavors were always cinnamon and watermelon. But there are many others available too. You can get them at cake and candy stores, even Walmart and Roberts sell them. They are tiny bottles, but you don’t use that much.
Here is the recipe for Lollipops:
- 2 cups sugar
- 2/3 cup light corn syrup
- 1 cup water
Combine the ingredients in a sauce pan and place over medium high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and have your candy thermometer ready. The thermometer will read “Hard Crack” when you know to turn off the heat and remove the pan from the heat source. When the liquid is ready, add 1/2 tsp. flavoring and 5 drops of food coloring. **Only do one flavor and one color at a time. I tried to split the batch and it was a lot harder than I thought. Next time I will just make one batch for each flavor and color.** It will fizz a little and smell strong, but it is perfect for the suckers.
Now you will pour the lollipop liquid into the molds. Don’t over do it. And if you spill a little here and there, it is okay. The strings that are left will harden and break off, they are a little treat. You can see that I just poured some of the lollipop liquid onto the wax paper, over the stick. They are fun and worked out good too. Then, once all of your molds are filled and the liquid is gone from the pot, let the suckers set. It doesn’t take very long, maybe 10-15 minutes. Test them by trying to pop them out.
They are quite the mouthful, but so, so delightful. Enjoy!
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Love this idea and I love the fact that they are small.
This made my day! I had forgotten all about doing the very same thing with my mom every year. What a fun thing!
YUM!
I’m going to be making some hard candy for Christmas gift baskets this year too! I Love your sucker molds, those are so cool. My mom had some of those when I was a kid, but I’m stuck with the “Pour it over the lolly stick on the waxed paper” version. I call them “Rustic” hehe..
Yours look delicious!
Stephanie – They are small, but the flat ones are good to lick.
Lindsey – I am so glad this reminds you of home. The taste of the cinnamon suckers really bring me back to childhood!
Muffin – These sucker molds are great, but I do love the look of the “Rustic” ones. They are very homemade looking. Yum Yum.
I just made some new ones and burnt the first batch. Watch your thermometer or else it will go even a little too high. I could smell the burnt and with the watermelon flavor, it just didn’t hide the burnt taste.
Also, I did try some in a plastic mold and it melted the mold. You will have to use metal molds, or no molds at all, just sticks. Good Luck.
These look great! Lollipops are on my list to try this Christmas season. I hadn’t thought of using molds. Yours turned out so cute.
Where do you typically find your flavorings? I’m thinking that “extracts” work and got one to try out the flavoring with my munchkins, but I was thinking that there have to be other flavors available than the measly pickings at our local walmart…. :)
Kim – That is a good question for the lollipops. When I was young, we used extracts too. But I like to use the flavorings that are in the tiny bottles, specifically made for candy making. I have purchased my flavors from a few places. Walmart has some in their wedding/cake section, kind of by the sewing and crafts. I have bought some at Roberts Crafts in their baking section, that is if you live in Utah. I bet Michaels Crafts may have some too and they are located all over the U.S. Joann’s Fabric too. Then I have also bought some at a Cake and Candy supply store, that specializes in cakes and candy.
Here is a link to Joann’s Fabric and they sell them online: http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat213846&PRODID=xprd72785
I could make 2-3 batches per bottle, depending on the amount of flavor I wanted. I hope this helps. Good luck. They are super fun to make.
These look great! Nice idea, Lollipops are good for every season.
I’ll try it !!
Just a note on the flavourings – they can be purchased at Bulk Barn in Canada – I’m not sure about Wal-Mart or Michaels (I was at Michaels yesterday, but I didn’t see them (I wasn’t looking terribly hard though)).
If I find them anywhere else, I’ll post and let people know!
Off to try your wonderful recipe, Marie – I’ve tried three other batches (from one recipe) and they’ve all come out bad… but I have faith in yours! :)
~K~
I just found your blog and love it! This is a great post about lolipops! Who doesn’t love em!
I love the “free form” of the lollipops! Perfect for my rebel child to make. ;)
Peggy
I couldn’t get mine to harden. I think I might have not let them get hot enough… I also think I used too much sugar. Is the liquid supposed to be thin before you pour it? That’s why I added so much sugar but I think it was wayyy too much.
Emily – Bummer to hear they didn’t harden. The liquid must get to the “hard crack stage” on your thermometer if that’s what you’re using. The liquid is very thin since it is sooo hot and pours out thin and fast. Then once it’s been poured, hitting the air, it should harden within a few minutes. If it doesn’t harden and is a little soft like a taffy, then you didn’t go high enough on the temperature.
Here’s a great recipe that describes the candy making and temperatures, scroll down to see the pictures: http://www.baking911.com/candy/chart.htm
Try to follow the recipe exactly, no more sugar than it calls for. If you don’t want to waste the flavoring, you could do a test run. The recipe is only sugar and water and corn syrup. It’s the flavoring that goes fast and is costly. Maybe try that, but know it won’t taste good, just do this for getting the right consistency.
Thanks for the resources my kids and I make them for speical occasions but all of our supplies are from the 80’s when my brother and I used to sell them at school. I needed new stuff. thanks again
Oh my, we tried this today. I got all the supplies – including one mold from Hobby Lobby that is plastic and makes about 6 lollipops that are mayyyybe 1/4″ thick? Anyway, needless to say we had a ton of leftover lollipop liquid sitting in the pan after just pouring those 6 and had to wait 15 mn. for them to harden…well, naturally the liquid in the pan hardened as well. We tried reheating it to pour some more, but the lovely strawberry flavored and colored lollipops weren’t what we got the second go around – instead they were darker and had a slightly funky carmelized-ish taste to them – we had to ditch the rest of the batch – bummer.
How many molds did you have on hand, thoughts on avoiding this in the future – etc. etc. seemed like such a waste after waiting for what seemed like a longggg time to get the temp. up high enough the first go so we could pour one tiny batch w/our one tray mold.
Thanks.
On a positive note, those first 6 got big thumbs up from the children and we did pour some “old fashioned” looking ones as well, although it seemed some of the wax paper came off on a few of them….hmm.
CAB – I’m glad you made these, but sorry that there were problems. I guess I didn’t specify how many lollipops it could make. I can usually get 20-25 out of this recipe. The molds I use are my Mom’s and are old. I actually haven’t used plastic molds before, but here is a great site to see where the gal just used molds for suckers: http://blissfullydomestic.com/blissful-kids/valentine-lollipop-pencil-toppers/
Maybe looking at this will help. I’m glad the ones you did make were good. The recipe is easy, but yes, it does take a while for the temp to get up. And if you do go over on heat, it does have a funny burntish taste. So you do need to be ready with all your molds, like 4-5 trays, right when the liquid is at the right temp.
I hope it goes well for you again. Oh, and since this post, for old-fashioned suckers, I’ve found that tinfoil works better than wax. But spray either one well before use.
Are you supposed to spray the molds too?
i love the idea, but how many lollipops does this recipe make?
Vandra – Good question. Although it’s different everytime, just depends on which style I make them in. At least 20, if not up to 30. So you need to get it all ready for at least 25-30 sticks, just in case it makes more.
This was an interesting post to read. Please give me more detail via e-mail.
Thanks :)
what a great idea! the steps you laid out were simple and easy to follow! thanks :)
that is such a good idea and it sounds so good I might have to try that