So with this batch, I used "Select" brand natural food coloring and Olive Nation Pure Watermelon Extract. I doubled both the coloring and the flavor extract since natural colors and flavors seem to turn out a little weaker than their chemical counterparts. No problem though since it improvise and double the amount asked for. In addition to using natural food color and flavor, I used sugar cane syrup which I made about an hour and a half before I started the candy. I usually only wait an hour and there was a small amount of crystals forming on the top of the syrup, but I don't think it will be enough to ruin the suckers. Finally, I used walnut oil to grease the sucker molds since this seemed to work out great in the last batch. Since these suckers are mainly for family and friends, it will be easy to make sure people don't have food allergies. However, I may switch to coconut oil for future batches just to be safe.
So the suckers are still in the molds, but I tasted a drip that dropped on the mold and the flavor is nice and strong. It is definitely a watermelon taste which I am happy with since this is the second time I used the Olive Nation extracts in hard candy. The first time, I used a chocolate extract that I purchased from Olive Nation which was not Olive Nation brand. This extract did not work out too well. However, I was not sure if it was the fault of the extract since that batch was slightly caramelized which usually hijacks the flavor. I also did not double the amount of the extract as I did with this batch. So the good news is that I can safely use Olive Nation extracts without any problems and they this batch is a good indication that they should all taste great.
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| Watermelon Suckers |
This is what they look like popped out of the molds. Again, minimal breakage which is great.
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