Hard Candy Recipe and Method

Here’s a simple hard candy recipe for making small batches.

This is an ideal recipe for artisan producers who are making products by hand, or using any small scale laboratory or demonstration machinery.

1. Start by adding your sugar, glucose and water to your boiling pan. (A tip if handling glucose, wet your hands first to prevent it sticking!)
Stir the ingredients so they are thoroughly combined before turning the heat onto full power. Put your thermometer into the pan and leave it to boil. Avoid stirring the mix if possible once the batch is boiling. Agitation can cause the sugar to re-crystallize.

2. The candy needs to boil to at least 290℉ or 143℃. Its important you monitor the temperature carefully as falling short or over-running will dramatically change the product and possibly ruin it.

3. Once the candy is up to temperature remove it from the heat and pour it straight onto the candy cooling table. While the batch is still liquid on the table we can add our colours and flavour. (adding them here as opposed to in the pan prevents colours and flavours leaking into the next batch) Add the colour and flavour to the centre of the batch and gently spread it out using lollipop sticks or a scraper.

4. As the candy cools it will begin to form a skin on the underside during contact with the cooling table. We need to ensure the cooling happens evenly throughout the batch. To achieve this the batch is scraped from the table and folded in on itself. Experienced candy makers can do this using their hands only. If you’re new to candy making then you may wish to use a scraper and use gloves.
After each fold you should leave it to cool and settle for about 30 seconds before repeating.

At this point your candy should be firm but pliable.
Some people will now pull air into the batch either by hand over a hook or with an automatic pulling machine. Pulling the batch bulks it out in size and helps develop colours.

5. Your candy should now be ready for processing into your chosen sweets.