How to Make Old-Fashioned Hard Glass Candy

Old-fashioned hard glass candy is easy to make, affordable, and makes an elegant homemade Christmas present. Homemade candy is sadly becoming a lost art, but you can make your own homemade old-fashioned hard glass candy with a few simple ingredients and some basic kitchen supplies.

Very few ingredients are required to make hard glass candy. The required ingredients for a single sheet of glass candy are as follows: two cups of regular granulated sugar, one cup of Karo light corn syrup (the clear kind), and a cup of water. These ingredients should be boiled on high until the mixture reaches a temperature of 302 degrees. Use a candy thermometer to make sure that the temperature reaches a full 302 degrees, otherwise the candy will not harden properly. You should also ensure that you use a big enough pot in which to boil the hard candy mixture, since the sugar and corn syrup mixture can expand rapidly as it begins to boil, and you do not want to have a stove top covered in sticky hard candy.

Once the mixture reaches 302 degrees, you can add whatever coloring and flavoring you wish to add to the mixture. Special candy flavoring oils can be used with great success; and such flavoring oils are available in a wide variety of flavors, including peppermint, wintergreen, spearmint, root beer, cinnamon, butterscotch, and so on. One teaspoon of flavoring oil is sufficient for a single sheet of old-fashioned hard glass candy. You can also add food coloring to make candy of whatever color you choose. Since hard glass candy is supposed to have the appearance of colored glass, do not use too much food coloring. Usually a drop or two of food coloring is sufficient to give the glass candy a translucent and sparkly appearance that mirrors the look of real glass.

When the candy mixture reaches 302 degrees, you should add the flavoring oil and the food coloring quickly, since the candy mixture will solidify and harden into candy very quickly. Pour the colored and flavored candy mixture into a cheap, flexible aluminum pan that has been coated in a thin layer of powdered sugar. The powdered sugar gives the finished glass candy a finished texture worthy of a candy found in a fine old-fashioned shop, and the powdered sugar helps keep the finished candy from stocking to the aluminum pan. You can also sprinkle some fine powdered sugar on top of the candy once you have poured it into the aluminum pan.

The aluminum pan you use should be large enough to allow the candy mixture to settle into a thin layer having a thickness ranging anywhere from an eighth of an inch to a quarter of an inch, depending on your preference for the thickness of the finished glass candy. I prefer to make my hard glass candy on the thin side so it is easier to break into bite-sized candy pieces and put into a candy tin. Once you have poured the liquid candy mixture into the aluminum pan, let it cool and harden for about an hour or so before you break the candy into pieces. You can either break the candy apart by hitting it with a wooden spoon or a small kitchen mallet, or you can cut the sheet of glass candy into small squares using scissors or a sharp kitchen knife. Since old-fashioned glass candy is supposed to have a rustic and homemade appearance, I prefer to break my glass candy into irregular-shaped pieces.

You can also use the same candy mixture to create homemade suckers or lollipops using candy molds and candy sticks. The flavor and shape combinations are limited only by your imagination and your desire to experiment. Homemade hard glass candy makes the perfect homemade edible Christmas gift because it is affordable and you can tailor make the glass candy to match the flavor preferences of the recipient. If you have never made your own old-fashioned hard glass candy, treat yourself or your loved ones to some homemade glass candy. It will evoke a bygone era of homemade treats, and a homemade gift is the perfect way to demonstrate your affection to your loved ones in a holiday season in the midst of an economic crisis. A batch of old-fashioned hard glass candy takes only a half hour or so to make, so you can make several batches, each with a different color and/or flavor in an afternoon. However, be careful not to burn yourself with the extremely hot and sticky candy mixture. But if you are careful, and follow the directions outlined above, old-fashioned hard glass candy is simple to make and a delicious holiday treat.