Did y’all know January is National Candy Month? While you can celebrate by pigging out on store-bought candy, I highly recommend you give this rock candy (or as my friend Shelby calls it, hard tack candy) a try! It’s actually super easy to make, y’all, but I do encourage you round up a helper! I’ll explain later….
My friend, Shelby, has all these wonderful recipes that were passed down to her. I took pictures of some of the handwritten recipe cards because, well, handwritten anything makes me happy. It’s such a personal thing, anymore, to have something that’s hand written and I’m thankful to have a friend that is willing to share them with me.
ROCKY CANDY
Back to the candy…..Having an extra pair of hands is essential because when this candy starts to cool, you are limited on time in cutting it up into pieces. Most people let their rock candy cool completely, get hard, and then just “break” it but Shelby said that a lot of times, that makes a whole bunch of tiny slivers and pieces or huge chunks. Instead, Shelby uses scissors to cut the candy before it cools. This requires some tough fingers or some sort of tongs. We are country girls so, of course, we toughed it out. Yesssss y’all, our fingertips were quite red by the end of making several batches of candy but it was totally worth it!
A tip to keep in mind when making this rock candy, using scissors, is after you’ve poured into the pan and let it cool a 2 or 3 minutes, you’ll need to start to pull up corners & edges and begin cutting. It will be HOT so if you can’t handle the heat, get outta the kitchen! Just kidding….sorta. If it’s too hot for you, then you might wanna try the other way of letting it cool completely and breaking it. After we pulled up corners and cut into pieces, we started pulling up all around the edges and just cutting a big piece off and cutting that into smaller pieces. Once you get going, it starts to cool off fast and gets harder to cut. Move as fast you can. This is why having an extra pair of hands helps big time!
You can make any flavor you want. We made peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, watermelon, butter rum, and grape. Butter rum was my favorite! Hope y’all enjoy the recipe as much as I did!! Let me know what flavoring oils you make! I think next time, I’m gonna try using my Cinnamon essential oil!
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- ⅔ cup white karo syrup
- 1 teaspoon (or a little more) of flavoring oil
- food coloring
- In a saucepan, mix your sugar, water, and karo syrup.
- Boil until temperature of the mixture reaches 300'.
- Take off stove and pour in food coloring & flavoring oil, as many drops as you like. Stir well.
- Pour into a greased cookie sheet. I used cooking spray.
- Let cool for a couple of minutes and start to cut or let cool all the way and break.
I know its a little off topic but this reminded me of time I spent researching making belgian candi to enhance the alcohol level in a beer I was going to brew without adding extra body to the drink. It seemed complicated at the time so I just paid for the candy which a that time was roughly 6 bucks a pound. After reading this post I feel like I should have given it a shot. If I remember correctly I just needed sugar water and lemon juice.But I never found a step by step guide to the boil and cooling process as easy to understand as this one. Thank you, you have inspired me to give it a go.
Yum! I’d make a whole batch of just green apple flavored ones. I miss those Jolly Rancher sticks (not the squares) that they use to make … less of a choking hazard.
I visited a local Amish community and they had similar candy. My favorite flavor was root beer. It was so good. I’m glad I found a recipe! The Amish also coated the pieces with powdered sugar to prevent them from sticking together after they cut it.
Quick tip. Avoid the pain of burning your fingers by using a large baking sheet. Fill with powdered sugar and make shallow rows through it with your fingers. When the candy comes off the stove pour into the rows of powdered sugar and cover over with the powdered sugar. Let sit a couple minutes and start cutting the pieces. You dont even have to touch it until you sift the sugar off. The best part is you kill 2 birds with one stone. The candy is cut and covered in powdered sugar which prevents pieces sticking together.
That is exactly how my grandmother taught us to cool it. It was fun watching the candy travel down the troth. She showed us to tilt the cookie sheet so the candy would run the length and make the thickness even. Once we broke it up, we put the pieces into another bowl of powdered sugar.
When do you add the oil?
Brandon you add the oil last… make sure it’s completely stopped boiling… The cinnamon will take your breath away
When we make this recipe, my mom and I always used a pizza cutter. Cuts good and quick!
Used this recipe it was great and easy thanks cowboywife
I grew up using this recipe and if you run out of flavoring or don’t have any – just use vanilla – it’s mild and easy on the taste buds!
This was one of the few recipes I learned in home economics class
(do they still do that it seemed like such a wasted class to me) I had such enjoyment making this, I attempted to do it again at home and the only extract we had was clove. So it was not the most appealing in taste as it was to make. We did the harden and crack method. I love the way yours looks in the picture though., Finding this post brought back a few jr high memories. LOL thanks for that. Best wishes.
Please revise your recipe and state when you’re to add the oil at the end thank you
It works well in silicone forms of small shapes as well. Just an add on.
This is exactly how my mom made hard tack candy, and we made it to give as Christmas presents every year. It looked like stained glass in those pretty little jelly jars. And the kitchen smelled like heaven! My grandma, sisters, & aunts all helped, so it went fast! We made: peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, clove, anise (my favorite), wintergreen, and occasionally butterscotch. I’m going to make it with my own kids this year.
Thanks I haven’t made this in a couple of years. It will be great for Xmas. Use the lines and powder sugar or move fast with pizza cutter. I can’t get the stars it is 5 stars
THANK YOU!!!! I have been searching and searching for a recipe for my grandma’s “snip candy” she used to make with her women’s circle for church. It wasn’t in her recipe notebook anywhere and none of my aunts could help me out. I knew it must be fairly simple. I can’t wait to make this with my kids; especially my daughter who is my candy kid.
I have been wanting to do this for years. I used to make this at church when I was a young girl. I’m standing in my kitchen now waiting for the sugar mixer to reach 300 degrees. Is it just me or does this part take forever? Lol.
i use to cook a lot im 61 bad heath but i still try love the rock candy i eat that when was a kid and still love it thanks
I can’t wait to try this with my grandbabies been looking for some of the old candy and cookie recipes from I was younger at grandma’s
Do you think you could put it in silicone molds? Thank you