Old Fashioned Candy Recipes - Easy Candy Ideas to Tempt Your Sweet Tooth (2024)

FAQs

How is hard candy made? ›

Recipes for hard candy use a sugar syrup, such as sucrose, glucose or fructose. This is heated to a particular temperature, at which point the candy maker removes it from the heat source and may add citric acid, food dye, and some flavouring, such as a plant extract, essential oil, or flavourant.

Cream of tartar can prevent your homemade hard candy, caramel, and toffee from forming a gritty texture due to sugar crystallization. Adding a pinch of cream of tartar to your sugar syrup will help break down the sugar molecules and stop them from crystalizing early on.

Hard candies can last up to one year if they're stored properly. Keep it in a cool, dry place away from humidity and heat. The coating of powdered sugar at the end of the recipe helps to keep hard candies from absorbing moisture from the air.

Hard candy like lollipops can last up to a year when stored at room temperature or in a cool, dry location. Gummies last for six to nine months from the date of purchase. Soft candies like caramel and jelly beans last six to nine months if the package has been opened and left at room temperature.

The alcohol is less polar than water, so it dissolves some of the candy coating, but more slowly and not as well.

Drinking water while eating desserts could raise blood sugar levels, even more than if you eat more desserts at the same time without siping anything. Drinking water while eating desserts could raise blood sugar levels, even more than if you eat more desserts at the same time without siping anything.

Sugar should not constitute more than 10% of your daily energy intake. Assuming an adult's caloric intake is 2000 calories, we should not consume more than 200 calories per day from sugar, which equates to 10 teaspoons of sugar, 4 marshmallows, 4 bonbons, or 4 candies.

They won't notice if you eat one or two. Or two or three. But before you dive in, remember that you shouldn't get more than 10% of your daily calories from added sugar -- that's around 200 if you typically aim for 2,000 a day -- and candy is loaded with it.

Is it OK to have candy everyday? ›

Routinely consuming too much added sugar can increase your risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and liver disease. The American Heart Association® recommends limiting added sugars to 9 teaspoons (150 calories or 36 grams) per day for men and 6 teaspoons (100 calories or 24 grams) per day for women.

For most kids, it is about 1 to 3 miniature or fun-size pieces of candy. Discuss with your child the importance of limiting candy. Talk about practical ways that he can make healthy choices. Talk with your children about donating some of their candy to senior centers or organizations serving those in need.

Still, it's OK to treat yourself a bit. If you're pretty healthy and only partake in a sugar binge once in a while, it's not going to hurt you, Ng said. There are also ways to help your body recover.

Hard candy is primarily made of fructose and glucose syrups mixed with purified water, flavorings, and colorings. Each ingredient needs to be prepared and heated according to the specifications for the desired product, before being mixed together.

The hard, shiny shells on candies are often made from shellac, a resin secreted by the lac bug. You may know shellac from its more famous work in varnishes and sealants, but it's also a mainstay in pill coatings, candy, coffee beans, and even the waxy sheen on apples and other fruits and vegetables.

Stir white sugar, corn syrup, and water together in a medium saucepan. 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.

JOLLY RANCHER candies are manufactured by creating a solution of corn syrup, sucrose, glucose, or fructose syrup that is boiled to a temperature of 160 °C/320F and cooled to create a supersaturated mixture that is roughly 2.5 percent water.