I tried making the swamp water candies -- with great success! I wanted to report on it, because I ultimately found an easier recipe than the stovetop one posted before.
I tried the stovetop method first. It made a big batch, and I hadn't bought enough molds (not realizing how many I'd need), so I ended up greasing a glass square brownie pan and pouring what was left in there. That worked fine, though it's hard to get nice looking pieces.
In my first batch, I chose The Wrong Flavor, so obvious in hindsight. I used tangerine oil and orange food coloring, and while they ended up sort of orange, the dark green of the tincture definitely fought with the coloring, making the color sort of brownish. And the tangerine flavor doesn't really cover the swamp water taste. 1 oz. is a LOT compared to 1 dram! The resulting candies, though not delicious, are not gag-making either and work very well -- I felt first effects in 1/2 hour on an empty stomach, was quite high by 1 hour, and it lasted a crazy long time - about 8 hours!
Then I accidentally broke my candy thermometer, so I thought I'd try the microwave recipe I was given at the candy supply store - on one of those recipe card handouts sponsored by the flavoring company. The ladies at the store said it wasn't a good recipe, but it worked excellently for me! No thermometer is required, it was a MUCH faster process, and it ended up making less of a mess in my kitchen.
My second time, I used peppermint oil. And green food coloring (though this might not have been needed, the candies would probably be a little green anyway from the tincture - I'll try that next time, to see.) The tincture was also evapped down to a thick syrup. The candies taste great, very minty, no hint of tincture flavor.
Here is the recipe I used. Note that it makes half the amount of the other posted recipe. Note also that this recipe doesn't call for any water at all, unlike the stovetop method.
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 (I used 4 drops)
swamp water tincture** (I used 1/4 oz. - it was 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!)
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 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.
[url]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1024/dscf0061qj.th.jpg[/url]
Just a few of the candies so you can see. I got about 30 pieces or so, the candies weigh about 7 grams each.
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** My swamp water was made thus:
1/4 oz. ABV, crushed with mortar & pestle
1/4 cup Everclear
My ABV, like Beezleb's, is less than fully vaped-out -- that is, I stop short of the popcorn-taste point when vaping, so as to get extra joy out of the duff in edibles.
It steeped for 2 hours, and was shaken a bunch of times as it went. When strained I had 50 mL, and it was cooked (evapped in a glass measuring cup sitting in a Crockpot with water) down to 7 mL. I didn't intend to cook it down quite so much, I was watching something in another room and should have checked on it more often. No harm done though. I did have to add a few drops of Everclear back into it, as some had stuck inside the glass cup.