10 Candies you Can Make At Home
With the holidays right around the corner, getting some snack ideas down early for that Thanksgiving or Christmas event can be quite helpful and save you some time and money. Forget running to the store and buying everything already made this year. Take this time to start planning exactly what you want, then go to the kitchen and start working on at least 10 candies you can make at home to make your events more personal.
1. Dalgona
Also known as Honeycomb toffee, sponge toffee, cinder toffee and or hokey pokey along with plenty of other names, is a sugary candy with a crisp sponge-like texture with a fun design in Korea. Dalgona’s main ingredients typically include sugar and baking soda. The baking soda and acid react to form carbon dioxide which is trapped in the boiling hot mixture. You can make this candy at home by simply putting 3 cups of sugar into a pan, turn the heat on high, and rigorously mix the sugar till it’s a dark brown consistency. Lastly add a pinch of baking soda to activate the sugar and baking soda reaction and stir more while taking the pot off the stove. When your sugar is a light brown color you can finally pour the mixture out of the pan onto a hard non-stick surface, quickly flatten the hot liquid then stamp a design on it with a cookie cutter before it solidifies. Within seconds you’ll have a perfectly made Dalgona candy you can poke apart for fun. The candy goes by a variety of names and is popular in many regions.
2. Fruit roll up
Fruit roll ups is a classic brand of fruit snack that was distributed in grocery stores across America in 1983. The snack is a flat, fruit-flavored snack usually with a design on it rolled into a tube, and put into a plastic rapper. The main ingredient contains five different types of sugar: sugar from pear juice concentrate, corn syrup, dried corn syrup, classic sugar, and a small amount of dextrose. Don’t have/ know what any of these are? Fortunately there’s an easy way to make this candy at home! You start by forgetting all the ingredients previously mentioned and grab strawberries, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Once you’ve got all the ingredients you can put your fruit into the blender along with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a dash of lemon juice and blend till it’s a smooth consistency. After everything is mixed up gently pour a thin mixture onto a lined baking sheet then bake at a low temperature for a couple hours till mixture dries.
3. Rock Candy
Rock candy or sugar candy, also referred to as rock sugar, and or crystal sugar, is a candy typically composed of relatively large amounts of sugar mixed with water and time creating crystals if prepared right. This candy is formed by allowing a supersaturated solution of sugar and water to crystallize into an object suitable for crystal nucleation, such as a string or stick. To make this delicious candy you’ll need sugar, water, food coloring, five skewers, mason jars, and clothespins. Start by coating your skewers in plain sugar, dip them in water quickly afterwards, coat again with sugar, then let dry for an hour. As the sticks dry, grab a mason jar, attach a skewer to a clothespin, and balance it over the mason jar with at least an inch of space at the bottom of the jar. In a saucepan pour four cups of water, boil, and add sugar while stirring till everything dissolves. Keep adding sugar until the sugar stops dissolving then let cool for five minutes. Finally add food coloring to the mixture and pour into mason jars with skewers still inside. Now all you have to do is wait 6-7 days for your crystals to form.
4. Sugar pop
A sugar pop (also called lollipop) is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of a hard candy ball mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking purposes. Lollipops are also available in many flavors, shapes, sizes, and shapes. The idea of an edible candy on a stick is very simple, and it is probable that the lollipop has been invented and reinvented numerous times. To make these simple treats all you’ll need is sugar, corn syrup, water, vanilla extract, and food coloring. Start by prepping molds by coating it completely in oil then mister sticks. In a pot combine one cup of sugar, one half cup corn syrup, one fourth water, and two tablespoons of vanilla extract all while on high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves then take off heat and let rest until pot cools down. Finally add food coloring to the mixture and pour into the molds. Let cool completely and enjoy a simple treat.
5. Sugar cubes
Sugar Cubes are cubes of sugar meant for table use. They allow a user to sweeten his or her beverage as desired. Generally, the beverages are hot, typically coffee or tea, as the cubes dissolve away very quickly into a liquid when the liquid is hot.They can be used to sweeten a cold drink, such as Iced Tea, but you will have to stir a great deal to encourage the cute to dissolve faster. To make these dining essentials you’ll need sugar and water. Yep that’s it! Start by mixing a couple teaspoons of water into a cut of sugar until it starts looking like wet sand, then simply pack the mixture into a mold and allow the sugar to dry overnight. Once they’ve dried, pop them out of the mood and into a hot beverage for a sweet ring.
6. Chocolate
Chocolate is one of the most popular candies and food flavors in the world, and many dishes involving chocolate are particularly desserts such as; cakes, pudding, mousse, brownies, and cookies. Chocolate is made from roasted and ground cacao pods, that is available as a liquid, solid, paste, or on its own as a flavoring agent in other desserts. If you cannot obtain a cacao pod there are plenty of places where you can purchase the cacao powder already made. Once you’ve got your powder you’re going to need sugar, salt, and cacao butter or pure butter. Start by boiling a large pot of water, place a smaller pot over it but not touching the boiling water underneath, place butter on a smaller pot and allow the butter to melt. Once the butter has melted you can go ahead and add one cup of cacao powder, four tablespoons of sugar, and two teaspoons of salt to the mixture and mix. Once combined, chocolate is formed and you can eat it from the finish or spread it across a chocolate bar mold and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.
7. Peanut brittle
Peanut Brittle is a type of candy consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts like pecans, almonds, or peanuts, which are usually about 1 cm thick. In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with pistachios, while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts. Peanut brittle is considered to be the most popular brittle recipe in the United States as well. To make this trendy treat you’ll need the following ingredients: Nonstick cooking spray, two cups of sugar, one half cup corn syrup, six tablespoons of unsalted butter, one half baking soda, and two cups of roasted salted peanuts. To start, line a baking sheet with tinfoil, grease the surface, then start to mix the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a saucepan, bring the mixture to a boil and keep stirring till it turns golden brown. Once you’ve got your golden brown mixture, start adding the rest of the ingredients until evenly distributed. Finally pour the mixture into the baking sheet and let cool down. Once cooled, simply break it to pieces.
8. Salted caramels
Caramel is a medium to dark orange or golden candy made by heating a variety of sugars on high heat. Salted caramel was invented in 1977 by a French pastry chef named Henri Le Roux in Quiberon, Brittany, in the form of a salted butter caramel with crushed nuts, using Breton demi-sel butter. All you’ll need to make this French dessert is: One stick of unsalted butter, one half cup heavy cream, three tablespoons of water, one fourth cup corn syrup, one cup sugar, and of course one in a half teaspoons of flaked sea salt. In a small saucepan combine water, corn syrup, and sugar while stirring over hot heat, then let boil with a cover on top till mixture is a light amber color. Take off heat and carefully add cream and butter then mix slowly to combine into mixture. Once complete pour mixture into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and let rest. Finally once candy has completely cooled down, you can remove from the loaf pan and start cutting into cubes and top off with salt.
9. Kisses
Hershey’s Kisses is a brand of chocolate first produced by the Hershey Company in 1907. The cute pieces of chocolate have a distinctive shape people tend to call iconic, sometimes described as teardrops. To make Hershey’s Kisses chocolates all you’ll need is microwave safe chocolate and a piping bag. Start by putting your solid chocolate in the microwave, then once melted simply pour into a piping bag and pipe little tiny teardrops on any non-stick surface and leave to dry. In a couple minutes you’ll have your very own kiss and can wrap it in a small piece of tinfoil to give to a friend or lover.
10. Candy apples
Candy apples are whole apples covered in a sugar candy coating with a stick inserted as the handle. These are a common treat at fall festivals and events in Western culture or Northern Hemisphere’s. Although candy apples and caramel apples may seem similar, they are actually made in a different process. To make candy apples all you’ll need is jolly ranchers and water. Start by pouring one in a half cups of water into a pot, then add two cups of jolly ranchers, and stir on high heat till it’s all melted. Grab your favorite kind of apple, stab a skewer in it, then roll the apple around in the mixture and set aside to cool down. Once cooled down the liquid should have solidified, leaving you with a candy apple.
