Lollipops are the tastiest and most affordable delicacy, an easy way to plunge into childhood. You don't have to run to the store to pamper yourself and your kids with these lollipops. Sugar, water, and a drop of vinegar are all you need for this.
Those who have found the Soviet era are familiar with such a delicacy as a sugar lollipop. Its taste evokes memories of a cloudless childhood, in which there was not such a variety of sweets as today. On the shelves, there were sweets exclusively of domestic production, and there could be no question of any import. Lollipops in those days could be bought in a store or in the market, but most often they were prepared at home on their own.
The technology for the production of lollipops is simple, but requires compliance with safety measures. Be careful when handling melted sugar, especially if children are present. It causes severe burns if it comes into contact with the skin.
In order to make candy from childhood you will need:
- sugar - ½ cup;
- water;
- vinegar or lemon juice - 1 tsp;
- vegetable oil;
- small ladle with a long handle;
- lollipop form;
- wooden sticks.
Take a ladle, pour granulated sugar into it. It is best to use thick-bottomed pans for making candy. Pour the sugar over with water just enough to cover it. Place the ladle on high heat. Heat it, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. When the mass boils and foams, add vinegar or lemon juice to it and stir well. The resulting solution must be boiled until it thickens and acquires a characteristic golden hue.
Vinegar is added to the sugar solution in order to avoid re-crystallization of the sugar, so that the structure of the candy remains amorphous.
You can check if the caramel is ready with a toothpick. Dip one end of it into the sugar mass and cool quickly in a glass of cold water. Try to chew on it. If the caramel is ready, it will crumble on the teeth. If the mass remains sticky and stringy, then you need to boil it a little more. Immediately remove the finished caramel from the heat and pour into the previously prepared forms. Do not overcook it, otherwise it will taste bitter. When the mass hardens a little, insert wooden sticks into the lollipops. Wait until the caramel is completely solid, disassemble the molds and remove the candies.
For the preparation of lollipops, special aluminum molds are most often used. They consist of two parts, which are connected with fixing brackets. Before pouring melted sugar into them, you need to grease them with vegetable oil so that in the future there will be no problems when you extract ready-made candies from them. If you do not have such a mold, you can use heat-resistant silicone molds or simply pour the sugar mass in circles onto oiled foil.
If you want to make a colored caramel, you can color it with berry juice, for example. In this case, it is necessary to use white sugar for its preparation, from which the lightest candies are obtained. Brown sugar caramel is too dark. Keep in mind that you will not be able to create bright candies in pure shades using natural ingredients. But this is not required, because your goal is to get exactly the same candies from childhood - golden cockerels and fish.
