Homemade Peppermint Hard Candy Recipes

Steps:

• Line a 13-in. x 9-in. pan with foil. Grease the foil with 1 tablespoon butter; set aside. In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook for 3 minutes to dissolve sugar crystals. Uncover; cook over medium-high heat, without stirring, until a candy thermometer reads 300° (hard-crack stage)., Remove from the heat; stir in extracts and food coloring. Pour into prepared pan. Cool; break into pieces. Store in airtight containers.

Steps:

• Coat two 9-in. square pans with cooking spray; set aside. (Do not use butter or foil to prepare pans.), In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine water and vinegar. Add sugar. Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to a boil, about 8 minutes. (If sugar crystals are present, cover saucepan for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes to allow steam to wash crystals down.) Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer reads 300° (hard-crack stage), about 26 minutes., Combine peppermint extract and food coloring. Remove syrup from the heat; stir in peppermint mixture until well blended (mixture will bubble up slightly). Immediately and carefully pour into prepared pans (do not scrape saucepan or tilt pans to spread mixture evenly). Cool for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes., Using a sharp knife, score candy into 1/2-in.-to 3/4-in.-wide pieces, about 3-in. long. Place both pans in a warm oven(150° or your oven's lowest temperature) for about 5 minutes or until candy is warm enough to cut but cool enough to handle., Using a heavy-duty kitchen scissors, cut along scored lines, one piece at a time. Immediately wrap each piece around the handle of a wooden spoon; remove candy and place on waxed paper to harden. Continue cutting and wrapping until mixture in pan begins to harden. Return pan to oven for at least 5 minutes. , Meanwhile, remove second pan from oven. Cut and wrap as before until mixture begins to harden. Return to oven and repeat with the first pan. Repeat until all mixture is cut and formed into twists.

Steps:

• In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, combine the sugar, water and corn syrup. Cook, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved; then cook without stirring, lowering the heat and cooking more slowly during the last few minutes, to the hard crack stage (300 degrees F), If sugar crystals form on sides of pan, wipe them off with a damp brush.
• Remove from heat, add oil flavoring and enough food coloring to color; stir only to mix. Pour into 2 well buttered 9 inch pans. Set one pan of candy over a sauce pan containing hot water (unless you have a helper to help cut the candy). As soon as the other pan of candy is cool enough to handle, cut it with scissors into 1-inch strips. Then snip the strips into pieces. Work fast. Drop the pieces onto a buttered baking sheet. If the candy cools too quickly, set it on a saucepan over hot water to soften it, but if it gets sticky, return at once to the work counter.
• Toss in a small amount of powdered sugar to keep from sticking together. Repeat with the second pan of candy.

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, stir together the white sugar, corn syrup, and water. 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.
• Remove from heat and stir in flavored extract and food coloring, if desired. Pour onto a greased cookie sheet, and dust the top with confectioners' sugar. Let cool, and break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

Steps:

• Combine sugar, syrup and water.
• Bring to a boil and boil till it reaches 310°.
• Add oil and food color.
• Spread in a lightly buttered cookie sheet.
• Cool and break.
• Shake in a bag with powdered sugar.

Steps:

• Beat cream cheese, butter, corn syrup and extract in large mixing bowl at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended.
• Gradually add 4 cups powdered sugar; mix well.
• Divide mixture into thirds. Knead a few drops green food coloring into one third; repeat with red food coloring and the second third. Leave the last third white.
• Wrap each third in plastic wrap.
• Working with one color mixture at a time, shape into 3/4-inch balls.
• Place on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. Flatten each ball with bottom of glass that has been lightly dipped in confectioner's sugar.
• Repeat with remaining mixtures.
• Decorating with icing or melted chocolate.
• Chill.

Steps:

• Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray, and set aside. Place sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan. Cover; bring to a boil. Remove lid, and cook, swirling pan occasionally, until syrup registers 305 degrees (hard-crack stage) on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and carefully stir in lemon juice, extract, and food coloring.
• Pour hot syrup onto prepared baking sheet, being careful not to touch syrup. Using a metal spatula coated with cooking spray, fold edges toward the middle (this will help cool the syrup). When it is cool enough to handle but still quite warm, using plastic gloves, strech and pull candy, folding it over onto itself before pulling again, until it is opaque and just starting to firm up, about 10 minutes.
• Immediately pull off pieces to form long pencil-thin ropes. Working quickly, cut into 7-inch lengths with a pair of kitchen scissors. Continue pulling until all candy is used or is no longer pliable.
• Temper chocolate: Heat 2/3 of chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water until chocolate registers 118 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove pan from heat, and add the remaining chocolate; stir with a rubber spatula (avoid using a wooden spoon, which can impart other flavors) until it cools to 84 degrees. Remove any unmelted pieces, and discard. Return bowl to pan, and stir until chocolate reaches 88 to 90 degrees.
• Dip top 3 inches of each pepperment stick in the chocolate, if desired. Allow excess to drip off; set on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and let harden.

Steps:

• Mix a few drops of peppermint into the white, red and green icing. Divide the white icing in 2 and wrap half in cling film along with the green icing.
• Roll the remaining half of white icing into a long, thin sausage shape, then do the same with the red icing. Lay the 2 sausages next to each other, and twist together. Gently roll the twisted length with the palm of your hand until the 2 sausages are joined and smooth. Slice into 12cm lengths, then bend the end of each one to make a hook. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment, then spread out the candy canes. Repeat with the remaining white icing and green icing, then leave the canes to dry out for at least 24 hrs before packaging.