Suckers and Lollies

As a child, we used to make a lot of suckers. They were so good that my sister started selling them to raise money for a summer camp she wanted to attend.

Our favorites were always a toss up between root beer, and cinnamon.

I didn't have my mom's recipe handy, so I searched the web and found numerous recipes which all pretty much looked like this:

2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water

2 cup corn syrup

food coloring and flavoring

Additional supplies: sucker sticks, molds, candy oils or flavoring extracts.

Place the sugar, corn syrup and water into a heavy bottomed pot and stirring constantly, over medium heat, bring to a boil.  (Coat measuring cup with cooking spray for easier pouring if desired).

Once the mixture begins to boil, place a candy thermometer in pan, and cook without stirring until it reaches the hard crack stage or 310* F.  

Add the flavoring and stir quickly, then pour into prepared molds, onto a Silpat or parchment paper (lightly sprayed with cooking oil), or a granite or marble countertop (which I'd never tried before, but was a dream). 

Quickly, before it can cool, place a sucker stick into each sucker, and twist the stick to coat (the buddy system is great here).  

Allow to cool, for approximately 10-20 minutes.  

Wrap each individual sucker in plastic wrap.  When prying off counters/pans/molds, be careful not to pull from the stick as it will break the sucker.