Make Yummy Old-Fashion Lollipops

by Bird’s Party Blog

Recipe & How-To - These would be such fun at your next birthday party.

Ingredients

Makes about 20 lollipops

* 250g caster sugar

* 80g water

* 80g clear runny, honey

* Lemon or other flavouring

* Liquid food colouring

* Wooden skewers

Sugar thermometer: OPTIONAL. I do not have one, and I'll tell you how to do it without one.

How to

1. Place some grease-proof paper on your worktops or any flat surface. Then, in a heavy-based large (about 2 litres or 4 pints) pan mix sugar, water and honey until well mixed.

2. Place the pan on a medium heat and bring to the boil. TIP: If your pan in not large enough, the sugar will tend to rise and want to bubble over the top of your pan. If you see this is happening (it did to me..) just lay a wooden spoon across the top of your pan. As soon as the sugar reaches the spoon it will not want to boil over too much...

3. If you have a sugar thermometer, then let your mixture boil until it reaches 160 deg C.

If you do not have a thermometer: Let your mixture boil away. To test if your sugar is ready, just drip a few drops of the sugar into a cup with cold water. If the sugar solidifies, (has to be brittle) then it's ready! My mixture took about 5-10 minutes to reach this stage.

This is very important, because if you take the sugar out too soon, it will not set! :)

4. Take the mixture off the heat (be careful it is vvvvv HOT!), then drop into the pan a few drops of flavouring (3 drops should do) and the colouring.

I used red liquid colouring (NOT the gel or paste) and stir with a wooden spoon to mix the colour well. I added about 10 drops of red to get this colour you see in the photos. Add more or less colour as you wish.

5. Drop about a tablespoon's worth of mixture onto the grease-proof paper, making a circle of about 2" or 5cm, and place your skewers in the middle of this "puddle", rotating the skewer to coat it's tip.

6. Let it dry completely for about 2 hours or so.

7. It will be sticky still, but now you can package them in cellophane paper and tie a ribbon to secure the paper in place. You can stick a pretty party label on it.

These suckers will keep up to 1 month in an hermetically sealed container.