Candies

[Vapenstien's Monster]

Here is a Candy recipe, I look forward to reading and trying some others.

Here is a link for Candy Molds,.. I also have found some at the local specialty cake shop.
https://www.candymoldcentral.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=1224
A lot of the candy molds are for suckers,.. these work with or without a stick. I like the little jewel shaped molds,.. makes my candy look fancy.

* 1 cup sugar
* cup light corn syrup
* cup Hooch ( Swamp water, tincture, etc etc)
* tsp extract of your choice (vanilla, mint, cinnamon, coconut, etc)
* Food coloring (optional)

Preparation:

1. Prepare your molds by spraying them with nonstick cooking spray
2. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and hooch in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Insert the candy thermometer and stir until sugar dissolves.
3. Allow to boil, without stirring, until candy reaches 295 degrees (hard-crack stage).
4. Once the candy reaches 295, remove it from heat. Stir in the extract of your choice, and, if desired, food coloring.
5. Spoon the candy into the mold cavities
6. Allow to cool completely and remove once hardened.

 

[herbgirl]

^^ Thanks, Vapenstein, i will be trying this next!^^

how do you find the effect to be if using ABV tincture?

 

[Vapenstien's Monster]

^^ Thanks, Vapenstein, i will be trying this next!^^

how do you find the effect to be if using ABV tincture?

I find the candies to be rather strong,.. 1 candy (about jolly rancher size) gives me a nice head feeling, 2 candies will do the trick to be sure. Of course the strength of the tincture will translate to the strength of the candy.

 

[CompassRosie]

I just love my candies! They're delicious, potent, and SO stealthy. I'm a total convert to making them in the microwave. No thermometer needed! (I keep breaking mine.)

This is the same recipe I posted here, with a few new notes.

Be prepared with everything you need, and it's quite easy.

MICROWAVE HARD CANDIES
Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. (1/2 dram) flavoring oil (Peppermint highly recommended!)
Liquid food coloring as desired
Tincture** (I use 1/4 oz. - very cooked down)

plastic wrap - have 2 pieces of the needed size waiting ready, and save yourself a potential Jerry Lewis-style moment of sticky fingers and Sabre Dance-themed anxiety!)

A note about food coloring. I was using it previously, but I discovered that swamp-water tincture will make the candies green naturally, and wandhash tincture will make them gold!



Instructions:

Thoroughly mix sugar and corn syrup in a 4-cup microwave-safe glass measure. [I used an 8-cup one, that's what I had. You just need something larger than a 2-cup size.] Cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on High for 3 minutes*. Remove from microwave, carefully remove plastic wrap. QUICKLY stir the sugar mixture and then cover with a NEW sheet of plastic wrap. Microwave on High for another 3 minutes. Remove from microwave, carefully remove plastic wrap and stir. Use caution to avoid rising steam!! After boiling has ceased, stir in coloring, flavoring and tincture. [I had them all mixed together.]

Pour syrup quickly BUT CAREFULLY into lightly oiled molds or onto greased cookie sheet (score at once to mark squares and break into pieces when cool.) [I used canola oil spray to grease the molds, also used a glass pan instead of a cookie sheet.] Let candy cool until hardened. Do not put cooling hard candy into the refrigerator. You don't need to anyway, it doesn't take long for them to set.

When cool, dust with powdered sugar to keep from sticking, if desired. (Put a SMALL amount, say less than 1 Tbsp of powdered sugar, in a ziploc bag with the candies and shake them in the bag. Too much sugar makes a HUGE mess, and you only want a little dusting. If you do overdo it, as I did, a pastry brush works well in dusting them off again. I felt like an archaeologist!)

* Note that microwaves can vary quite a bit. The original recipe called for 3 mins. 10 secs. on the first heat and 3 mins. 15 secs. on the second, but I know my microwave to be very enthusiastic, so I just made it 3 and 3. It worked perfectly.


I've made swamp water candies with tincture that started out with 1/4 oz ABV and 1/4 cup Everclear, and I've also made a double-strength batch, starting with 1/2 oz. ABV and 1/2 cup Everclear. Each time I evaporated the tincture down to where it's just barely still liquid.

Lately I've been loving that golden wandhash candy! It's not possible for me to gauge how much wandhash I actually used, but I just saved it up in a jar until about 1/4 cup of wash was opaque with goodness, and then I evapped it down in a Crockpot. I have a batch of 'goldies' cooling right now. I've also made some that were a hybrid of both swampwater and wandhash tinctures. (If you do this sort of thing be sure you do some kind of discreet labeling so you remember which is which!)

 

[hemp;)goofy8cheerio]

i heard microwaves change the structure of food to inedible dunno if tru. is the microwave method that much easier than stove method & if cookin to 295 degrees if u use fresh bud in extract i guess u may lose compounds that would burn up to 295 aromatics

 

[Vapenstien's Monster]

i heard microwaves change the structure of food to inedible dunno if tru. is the microwave method that much easier than stove method & if cookin to 295 degrees if u use fresh bud in extract i guess u may lose compounds that would burn up to 295 aromatics

I am not real sure if it is true or not, I just never got into using a microwave to cook. Maybe cause we used to call it "Nukeing" our food, maybe cause I don't feel it heats evenly,... I am just in general against the microwave,... even for popcorn,.....

**Edit** I don't think you loose much with either candy mehthod, I have nothing to back up the next statement but I feel like the sugars trap the chemicals that would otherwise burn away.

 

[herbgirl]

abv tincture candies are cooling now. they taste pretty good! and were very easy to make in the microwave, if a bit messy because i used powdered food coloring and nu-silver dust to give them that magical sparkly look.
in the interest of science, i took some hot tea and dissolved the candy that didn't make it out of the measuring cup. i'll consider that my first dosage.

 

[herbgirl]

used the microwave recipe and it was quite easy. just watch when you go to pour the tincture into the hot sugar syrup, it sizzles violently when the tincture hits the hot sugar.

i think the silver dust adds a neat touch, makes it very iridescent looking. The effects from my 'dosage' in the hot tea were very heavily sedative. DH remarked that he had a very sound night of sleep after his dosage.

next time i do this i will whack the molds on the counter to get the air bubbles out after pouring

 

[Lo]

The candies look great Herbgirl!!

I just made a cinnamon batch for a concert trip next week with my sister.

I was shopping for flavorings for my ecig juices and saw these little hexagon break away molds on LorAnn's website so I decided to add a couple to my order just to give them a whirl. Man, so glad I did!!

It was really nice to just pour the goop into the molds and let it settle into the pieces. I wasn't sure how it would spread so I used two molds and just poured in the middle. I let it harden and the whole block came out of the mold very easily. I snapped into pieces and threw them in a bag to dust with powdered sugar. The molds cleaned very easily too. Really tickled with this easy mold method.

These are the kind I used:
https://www.lorannoils.com/p-8601-sheet-mold-hexagon-breakup.aspx

 

[herbgirl]

instead of extract i used a few drops of peppermint and spearmint essential oils ~ yum

i saw those break up molds in squares when i was searching the internet. my friendly neighborhood candy/cake shop is ordering me in some small gem molds, but i just bought and used what they had because i'm impatient.

The gem shaped molds will come in handy when i make horehound cough drops later in the month, as well as for my 'special candies' - damn need to come up with a catchier name than that - when i make them again.

 

[momofthegoons]

Lo, those molds look perfect. I've looked locally and the only thing I could find was a mini ice cube tray that was the right size. Since I could only find one, it wasn't going to be big enough. I think I'm going to check these out as they look like they are the perfect size. Thanks!

 

[herbgirl]

last weekend, i made a half batch of the microwave version of the candies and they ended up soft, more like taffy. anybody know what's up with that?
they were still nice, i got a whole party happy and giggly, but just not the hard candies i was going for. didn't really have time to correct the mistake, so i just gave them out as is and called 'em canna taffy. people were bugging me to buy some. hmmmmm.

and trying to pour them into the gem molds was very tricky so i'll have to work on that process too.

 

[momofthegoons]

herbgirl, I'm thinking for some reason, the mix didn't get to the right hardness stage in cooking. I have had bad results often in cooking when trying to scale down a recipe. You figure if you cut the ingredients by half, you're okay, but then it doesn't turn out as well.

Did you add more liquid, either corn syrup or tincture, than the recipe calls for?

 

[Lo]

When my candies have come out chewy it was when I was trying to add extra tincture to see what the threshold was. People actually loved the chewy batches but they were a PITA to deal with lol.

I think all microwaves vary too and the sugar/corn syrup mixture has to get to the right stage to do hard candy. Most recipes are much more complicated with the candy thermometer. This one I think works very well once you nail down your microwave time....and amount of tincture. For me I've found more than 1.5 oz of tincture and they'll be chewy.

 

[hemp;)goofy8cheerio]

so if microradiation oven craps out is stove top method a little bit better for hi-strength candy?

 

[Lo]

I'm not sure the stove method is better but it can be done on stovetop with a candy thermometer. No matter which method you use the amount of tincture can only vary slightly as too much will still make them not harden properly... believe me I have tried overdosing the tincture a few times to see the threshold

 

[herbgirl]

i think it was a combo of my halving the recipe and too much tincture. they were nice and effective, just not what i was going for. too stick-in-the-teeth chewy for me.

i evapped the tincture way down and then had to reconstitute. guess i was a lil too enthusiastic with the reconstitution.

so Lo, how far can you take it and still have them come out as hard candies?

 

[wthanna]

When I first tried this recipe, I did it with no tincture, in order to figure out the cooking time on my microwave. I heated for 3 minutes, stirred, heated for 3 minutes, added flavor and color.. They came out sticky.

I then made a batch, with tincture, only this time I heated for 3 minutes 15 seconds for both heating times. They came out just like they were supposed to.. great hard candy.

 

[Lo]

I have found I can stuff 1 - 1.5 oz of tincture in the mix and still have hard candy. 2 oz. = chewy mess.

I do think that you have to get your microwave temps nailed down too in order for candy to harden properly.

I do 3 minutes and 3 minutes but my microwave is powerful. If the microwave is less powerful need to add those extra seconds maybe.

 

[herbgirl]

well, the first halved batch i did in the microwave burned at 2 minutes, luckily i hadn't added the tincture yet. the second i did for a minute 30 and it wasn't enough. so maybe a minute 45 seconds may be what i want for such a small batch. i figured if i made a full batch of candies they would be too weak. I didn't want to have to eat like 40 of them to get a buzz.

i'll get it down next time.
on the other hand the lorann brand chocolate mint flavor masked and complimented the weedy flavor quite nicely.

I have at least 4 people wanting to know when i'll have more - actually offering to pay for them!
maybe i got a racket here, i'm the only one that I know who vapes (so far - working on some converts) and has abv to work with.

 

[Lo]

I stumbled upon a youtube video of a dude making green dragon hard candy on stove top

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpNZ9ImmqfQ

 

[Vapenstien's Monster]

candy is fun, but I have been playing with milk lately and it is crazy

 

[MacRadish]

No matter which method you use the amount of tincture can only vary slightly as too much will still make them not harden properly

What would your opinion be on the threshold, in weight, using BHO in a 1 pound hard candy batch?

I am curious to know what is the make up of the tincture you are adding to your batch. The ABV tincture I make is double boiled down so all alcohol is gone and the remaining goop is added to a cannabutter recipe. Not really a tincture but my method is to accumulate ABV in a quart Ball jar keeping it soaked with just enough Everclear until the entire jar is full. Then I do the extraction on it, then make butter, then make cookies. But I'm getting bored of the cookies and want to start venturing into candies but feel the syrupy ABV goop might not allow the candy to harden so then thought about using erl instead.

Anyone have any opinions/thoughts/experience on how much is too much erl to use in making hard candies?

I see a lot of the standard recipes call for a dram of flavor oil, I'm guessing I would be safe with a dram size glob of erl.

 

[Lo]

I've experimented with the microwave candy recipe in this thread and have found that anything over 1.5 oz. of tincture is too much. I only let mine evaporate by about 1/2 volume but haven't gone down to goo...though that was my next thought. I've also started cutting back on flavoring to allow more tincture to go in.

I'd be interested in how BHO would do...I imagine quite well

I'm using the little hex break away molds and I'd say my strongest batches you still needed 2 candies to feel anything so there is room to increase strength in my opinion.

Holler back when you've made your first goo candy batch - I'm paying attn lol.

 

[herbgirl]

sucks that these are only for candy coating

http://www.amazon.com/Unknown-Marijuana-Leaf-Candy-Molds/dp/B00086I8B4