Making Hard Candy

Although learning to make my own hard candy has not been entirely easy, I can say that it has definitely been worth it.  Of course you can always buy natural candy on-line, but making it on your own is much more rewarding and of course more economical.  So if you are considering starting up your own personal candy factory, here are some hard candy making tips and links to notes I've taken along the way.

Hard Candy Making Tips

• Once your candy reaches the right temperature, it will be important to remove it from the heat right away, add flavor and color and start pouring into the molds.  The candy will cool quickly and will no longer be pourable.  So, always be sure to prepare everything before starting the candy.  Have your molds oiled and set out in place, have a pan with ice water set to the side for testing the candy stage, have your candy thermometer attached to the pan, and have your food color and flavor out and ready.  
• Pot size is very important. switch pot before cooking if too big or small.
• Medium high temp is best.  Anything higher and the candy will cook too fast and anything lower will result in you waiting forever for the candy to get to the right temperature.
• Cover sugar cane syrup as well as candy when it reaches a boil.  Keep covered for two minutes.  This method works better than brushing down the pan with water.  However, I like to brush down the pan after removing the lid just to make sure none of the crystals remain on the inside of the pan.
• Do not stir once the sugar is melted.  This will cause the candy to crystallize.  
• Do not put the same spoon in the mixture twice since this may also cause crystallization. 
• Watch the mixture closely while cooking.  If the temperature is rising too quickly, lower the heat a little.  If it is not moving at all, raise the temperature a little.  The temperature should climb steadily and noticeably.  You don't want to take your eye off it too long since, the sugar will start to hit the caramel stage if you let it go up past the hard crack stage.
• Some flavor extracts don't work well with hard candy.  Try using more than what is asked for in the recipe.
• Likewise, some natural colors don't work well with hard candy.  Try mixing longer or just find another brand.  "Select" brand seems to work nicely with hard candy.
• Grease molds with cooking oil very well before pouring molten sugar into them.  Shortening is not advised.  Canola, vegetable or walnut oils work well.  
• For best results make sure the mixture reaches the minimum advised temperature before removing even if it seems to have reached the right stage.  If you take it off too early, the suckers will be soft and will droop out of their form in a matter of days.
• Once candy has cooled in the molds, place them in the freezer.  Unless you live in a very cold place, the candy will be difficult to pop out and you will have more breakage if they are too warm.

Links to notes on each of my batches: 
Hard candy batches number 1- 4 7/12/2011
Hard candy batch number 5 29 Oct 2011
Hard Candy (suckers) sixth batch - 1 Nov 2011