Candy…It’s a Family Tradition!
When my mother was a young girl, she would help her Grandma make the candy in flavors of anise and butter rum. My great Grandma passed away when my mom was a teen. For many years, no one in our family carried on the Candy tradition. When I was about seven years old, my mom started to make my great Grandma’s candy once again. I’ve been helping ever since. My dad and brother even help out sometimes. Last year was first time that I was unable to help my mom carry on the tradition. So this year, I was not missing out. The Saturday before Christmas the candy making began. We started at noon and eight hours later, we had seven batches of hard candy all packed away into gift bags to be shared with our family and friends.
So, you see great Grandma’s candy is no easy task. The reason why, we do it just like my great grandma Millie did. My Grandma gave my mom great Grandma’s candy pans and scissors. So, just like great grandma Millie, once the candy has come to temperature we add our coloring and flavorings and pour the candy into pans to cool. After about twenty minutes, while the candy is still hot and malleable, we stretch it out and cut it with scissors into small uniform pieces. The candy then gets dusted with powdered sugar.
One thing we have expanded on is the flavoring. great grandma Millie used to only do anise and butter rum flavors. Over the years, my mom and I have added cinnamon to the mix. When I was fourteen, I traveled as a People to People Student Ambassador. The trip was not inexpensive and my family and I fund-raised over half of the cost. My mom, aunt, and I made over twenty batches of my Great Grandma’s hard candy in various flavors (lemon, root beer, anise, butter rum, cinnamon, amaretto) and sold them at craft shows and all around town. Not only has Great Grandma’s hard candy created mother-daughter time, but it almost solely sent me to the United Kingdom.
So now, I’d like to share with you my Great Grandma Millie’s recipe as well as a photo gallery of our day.
Ingredients:
3 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 -dram bottles flavoring oil LorAnn Food Coloring (about 12 drops for a nice color)
Powdered sugar
Directions: In a large pot, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring mixture to a boil without stirring. Continue to cook the syrup until the temperature reaches 260º F on a candy thermometer. Add coloring. Do not stir. Remove from heat when the temperature reaches 300º F. Add flavoring. Stir to combine. Pour candy into lightly greased candy pans. When candy is slightly cooled, scrape out of the candy pans onto a cookie sheet. Cut into small pillow-shaped pieces with scissors. Dust with powdered sugar.
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- The Ingredients
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- Setting Up
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- Sugar!…The Main Ingredient
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- A little bit of Corn Syrup
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- Add Water
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- Adding the food coloring
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- Add the Coloring
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- Green for Anise
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- Adding the Flavoring
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- Cooling
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- Great Grandma’s Candy Pans and Scissors
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- Hot!
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- Cutting into Pieces
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- Oh So Sweet
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- Fresh Butter Rum Candy
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- Finished Product
