Valentine Lollipops in the Microwave

The plan was to make cherry heart lollipops for our friends for Valentine's Day...and although ours did not turn out as cherry as we hoped, the rest of this project worked very nicely.  It is so much easier than boiling sugar in a pan.

Step 1:

Prepare a mold - I put A LOT of powdered sugar in my biggest sheet pan and spread it as flat as I could.

You would think with 2 little girls in our house we would have a plethora of heart shaped objects, but none surfaced, so I had to make a heart of cardboard.  I hot glued a Scooby Doo pencil on the end to use as a handle and pressed hearts into the powdered sugar (leaving room for sticks).

I tried both putting the sticks in before adding the candy and putting them in at the end.  Both work ok, but the sugar sets up quickly, so the last few don't go in as nicely if you wait.

Step 2:

In a 4 cup bowl, mix 1 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup light corn syrup.  Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes and 15 seconds.  Uncover (away from your face) and stir with a clean spoon.  Recover (with new plastic wrap, although this goes without saying b/c the first sheet will be toast) and microwave again on high for 3 minutes and 15 seconds.  Uncover and stir again with a clean spoon.  When it stops boiling, add food coloring and flavoring as desired.

I added 1/2 tsp of cherry extract.  They taste like a cotton candy Dum Dum.  The extract I have is from the baking aisle and not specifically for candy.  Maybe that would have made a difference.

Step 3:

Pour the sugar mixture into the mold immediately.  Allow to cool a few minutes before removing.  The recipe made a whole pan's worth.  After I removed the lollies,  I spread the sugar again and pressed the mold again, then I sifted the sugar at the end and I think I can reuse most of it.

Voila!

The look nice and clear and the color is perfect.  Rob really likes cinnamon hard candies, so that is a future project for us.