The Traveling Ginger: November 2012

“We are the music makers... and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

-Willy Wonka

At this point, I’m pretty sure you are all like, “what the bloody hell is Lindsay doing?”

And my answer to you…. Is… I’M CELEBRATING MOVEMBER. Move over, menfolk, this lady’s got a ‘stache. (well, kind of….. in good news, they taste AWESOME)

Admit it. You like it.

So let me tell you a little about myself.

I kind of like mustaches. Facial hair in general. (Good thing I work in the industry I do.) My car has a “I heart mustaches” sticker on it. Here’s what it looks like:

It's my mustache ride...

Outside of that, I also absolutely love and enjoy being in my kitchen. And I’m home! So, I’m in my kitchen whipping up something fun.

I’ve been collecting these materials for a few days now, trying to make sure I had everything I needed to make these fun little lollies.

But if anything, I can explain to you guys how I made them!

One of the things I really like about making candy is that it’s a challenge to me. I can’t tell you how many batches of hard candy, brittle, and marshmallows I’ve screwed up. Alllll the time. I’ve broken candy thermometers, burnt myself on sugar, and cursed like a sailor once I realized my candy didn’t set.

It. Drives. Me. Nuts.

But I still do it. I relish the challenge.

Mostly because, it seems so simple, but it’s so remarkably easy to screw up. Candy making requires a good measure of patience… something I wasn’t exactly born with. In fact, it’s something I’m still working on getting better at every single day. I just get so excited for the end product that often, I end up rushing it.

But you can’t rush candy. It’s not forgiving in that regard.

So, here’s a simplistic explantation of how candy-making goes:

Sugar + water + lite corn syrup over medium heat on the stovetop. Stir the sugar till it dissolves (still will look white) and then let that bad boy start boiling.

Let it boil until you get to 260 degrees, add color until you get the hue you want (NO stirring it in. The boiling does the job).

And once it hits 300 degrees you take it off the heat, let it stop boiling, and add the flavor.

Yummmmmmm.

Pour into molds and voila! Hardy candy.

What I didn’t know is that you need to remove the lollies while they’re still somewhat warm from the molds.

So, currently, half of the lollies are in the trash, half are bagged and look a little busted, and my molds are soaking in hot water. Amazing how if I had just taken two seconds to look up when to take them out, I wouldn’t have had any issues.

But I loved making them regardless! I have nine other flavors and a bunch of colors, so I can’t WAIT until I get to make lime green lollies or blue champagne flavored lollipop mustaches. Just because I can.

I’m also totally going to get some whole hops and put them in the lollies eventually. Lime hopped lollipops.

Sounds AWESOME.

Boom.