[Christmas Candy] Lollipops

When I was five I was gifted my very own record player for my birthday.  It was so cool.  It was yellow.  I'm sure that I was the envy of all the neighborhood children.  I had lots of vinyl records.  You know, like at least ten.  All kinds of awesome kid stuff--like Sesame Street and The Sound of Music.  If you could travel back in time with me to this day in 1974, I can guarantee you that I was listening to "Snoopy's Christmas" on my record player.  I listened everyday from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  Guaranteed.  My all time favorite song on that album and really the only one that I can remember all the words to was "Christmas Candy".  I think this song shaped my life.  Christmas and candy just go together in my world.  You can't have one without the other.  Well, you could.  But it would be totally and completely wrong on every possible level.

I am finally feeling better and I have been making candy for the past couple of days.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  And I plan on making lots and lots more. Caramels, fudge, marshmallows, peanut butter cups, divinity, peppermint bark... It just doesn't get any better.

Today I made lollipops.  You need to make some too.  It's easy.  You will need some heat tolerant molds to make lollipops though.    I found some lollipop molds at the store today.  My recipe made nine large flat lollipops.  The molds cost around $2.00 each.  There are three lollipops per mold.  You also need some sticks.  You can pick those up almost anywhere (WalMart, Hobby Lobby, etc)  I also happen to have some really cool metal molds that make a 3-D spherical kind of sucker.  Kind of like a tootsie-pop without the tootsie.  Which is really too bad.  I wonder how to make your own tootsie?  I'll have to look into that.  Anyway, I made some of each kind.  Nine flat and twelve spherical.  Yum!
 
You can choose from all sorts of flavors and colors.  I used cinnamon oil and red food coloring for the first batch and butter rum oil and yellow food coloring for the second batch. Lollipops.  It's fun to say.  And even more fun to eat.  There is just something cool about that stick!  BUT, I have even bigger plans for these pops.  I will show you real soon, I promise.

I will tell you this.  You are going to want to have some pops on hand.  Trust me.  So, let's make some.  Shall we?

Be sure to lightly grease your molds before you pour in the hot syrup.  I may or may not know this from experience.  It is especially important to grease the metal molds!

If you don't have molds, you can still make hard candy.  Just pour it into a lightly greased square metal pan.  My Mom used to score it into little squares with a metal spatula while it was still warm.  Then when it had cooled she would turn it out and break it into little pieces.  Dust them with powdered sugar put them in a Christmas tin and you are good to go!

The recipe above makes translucent lollipops.  If you want to make opaque pops you will need to add some of this magical stuff.  It's a liquid white food coloring made by LorAnn.  Just add between 1/4 and 1/2 tsp of liquid whitener right after you add the flavoring and the food color.

Lollipops.  Make some.

UPDATE:  Now that you've made your pops.  Come see what fun can be had!