Honey Lollipops (on Honey Wands!)
This recipe for Honey Lollipops makes use of honey dippers rather than strange lollipop sticks. They work double obligation as candy treats and souvenir favors for weddings, child showers, and extra!
I first had the thought for these honey wand lollipops final Christmas, however months later, I’m simply getting round to creating them. I’d deliberate to offer them as stocking stuffers, however I feel they’re much more applicable for spring. And particularly summer season when honey is abundantly flowing.
DIY brides (or maybe a artful member of their entourage) could discover this a straightforward and cheap wedding ceremony favor. They’d even be so cute for a bee-themed child bathe (see my Bee-licious occasion for HGTV.com right here). I’ll most probably use this batch on my eating room desk, to spruce up place settings and to offer dinner company a take-home deal with.
Select your honey.
Begin together with your favourite honey. Clover honey, wildflower honey, orange blossom honey – the choices are countless! In the event you ask me, the most effective honey is the free variety, and the honey I’m utilizing was gifted from a bee keeper buddy of the household. You’ll want simply 1/2 cup for a batch.
How you can cook dinner honey into onerous sweet.
Stir collectively the honey, gentle corn syrup, granulated sugar, and water in a big saucepan. To those that recoiled on the point out of corn syrup on this recipe – I’m conscious that everybody is meant to detest the stuff. Nonetheless, it isn’t excessive fructose corn syrup. It’s simply common corn syrup that confectioners and pastry cooks use sparsely. (In the event you’re , learn Food52’s article Why Corn Syrup Isn’t Evil.) On this recipe it prevents crystallization of the sweet because it cooks and provides the lollipops a protracted shelf life.
Insert a sweet thermometer into the pot, and preserve the elements on a gentle bubble.
Make an ice tub.
Because the sweet bubbles its approach to onerous crack stage (round 302°F on this recipe) make a giant bowl of ice water. In the event you don’t have a big sufficient heat-proof bowl, a steel 13×9-inch cake pan will work, too. In the meanwhile the sweet reaches temperature, take away it from the warmth and plunge the underside of the pan into the ice tub. This stops the cooking of the sweet combination.
Use an ice dice tray for a sweet mildew.
I discovered this 2-pack of hexagonal ice dice trays that I believed regarded identical to a honeycomb. Which is ideal to make use of for molding honey lollipops! It labored properly and held all the cooked sweet. Simply give the cavities a spritz of cooking spray earlier than you pour.
Use a double thickness of heavy-gauge aluminum foil to cowl the tray tightly. Press it down flat so you’ll be able to see every little hexagonal form. Make little X shapes with the tip of a paring knife within the facilities of every form.
Subsequent – time for the honey wands! Use 6-inch honey dippers and insert the ends into every X formed gap. (You could find the wands online right here, 20 items for round $10.)
Now, right here’s the difficult half. These wands are prime heavy, so they’ll wish to wobble to-and fro. Use a strip of painter’s tape throughout the dipper ends to carry them in place. Rigorously regular all of them upright and depart them alone to set. You may also use strange lollipop sticks, which can fare higher standing upright on their very own.
Unmold the honey lollipops.
Take away the foil by tearing it away from the lollipop sticks. Just a bit wiggle will free these from their molds.
Honey lollipops Q&A.
You might ask “why not simply use common lollipop molds as a substitute of an ice dice tray?” Nicely. They don’t work with the wands and right here’s why. The honey wand sticks are too thick to put flat within the stick groove in common lollipop molds. I examined varied sizes of wands, 3-inch to 6-inch, and so they all have the identical stick thickness. In fact, you should use common lollipop molds with commonplace measurement paper sticks with success.
You may additionally surprise, “why not mildew the sweet on the ‘dipper finish’ of the wand?” You can, however there’s not sufficient room for a lot sweet after the dipper is inserted. You can strive it with a bigger ice dice tray, but it surely’s a bit cumbersome for having fun with as a lollipop.
These are actually fairly on strange lollipop sticks, too! These are smaller than the wands, so I like to recommend packaging them 2 to a bag for gifting.
Preserve the pops in a cool dry place and they’re going to final for a very long time! So long as they’re refrained from humidity, they’ll have a protracted shelf life.
There’s no incorrect approach to get pleasure from these lollipops. Have one for a candy deal with, give them as presents, or simply stir one in your scorching tea.
Associated recipe: Home made Sizzling Honey
Honey Lollipops
Honey Lollipops will be made forward and used as presents, wedding ceremony favors, or simply for having fun with. Stir one in a cup of scorching tea for slightly further sweetness.
- Cooking spray for the ice dice tray
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup gentle corn syrup
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
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Put together an ice tub with ice cubes and water in a giant chrome steel bowl or steel 9×13-inch pan (one thing your saucepan will match into).
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Spray the silicone ice dice tray with cooking spray.
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In a medium saucepan stir collectively the honey, corn syrup, sugar, and water. Stir collectively till properly included. Connect the sweet thermometer to the pan.
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Convey to a boil over medium-high warmth, then cut back the warmth to medium in order that the combination stays at a rolling boil that’s regular and never too vigorous.
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Prepare dinner to 302°F, which is tough crack stage for sweet. The second the sweet reaches temperature, plunge the underside of the pan into the ice tub. Let the effervescent subside for 1-2 minutes.
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Pour the sweet into 25 cavities of the silicone tray, filling every about 3/4 full. Let stand 1-2 minutes, then cowl with double thickness of aluminum foil.
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Flatten the foil evenly so you’ll be able to see the hexagonal impressions. Use a fine-tipped paring knife to chop a small x into the aluminum foil within the facilities of every hexagonal form.
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Insert the stick ends of the honey wands into every of the X shapes. The wands will wobble a bit. Stand them upright (it’s possible you’ll want an additional pair of palms to assist) and use strips of painters tape throughout the highest of the dipper ends to safe them collectively upright. After they’re balanced, depart them alone to agency, about 2 hours.
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Take away the painter’s tape and tear away the foil. Wiggle every wand finish slightly to loosen the honey pop from the mildew. Switch to a parchment or wax paper-lined baking sheet. Let stand 20 minutes to air dry.
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Package deal every in cellophane and tie with ribbon, or retailer them in an hermetic container in a cool dry place. If saved away from humidity, they’ll final two weeks or longer. These will be made as much as every week forward.
Don’t retailer these within the fridge. Preserve them away from all types of humidity.
