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.
