20 Easy Candy Recipes Perfect for Beginners (2024)

FAQs

What are the basic ingredients in candy? ›

At the heart of almost every candy recipe lies sucrose crystals, making sugar the main ingredient. Complementing sugar is syrup, often derived from starch sources like corn or tapioca. This combination of sugars provides a stable and flavourful base for a variety of candies.

Basic Candy Instructions

Put the sugar, water and glucose syrup into a pan. Place it over high heat. If you've got any sugar on the sides wash it down using a wet pastry brush. Turn your oven on to 100C (212 degrees Fahrenheit) and place a tray lined with non-stick baking paper in to warm up.

One of the oldest hard candies ever made was created by The Aztecs & Mayan civilizations using barley, honey and spices. This ancient hard candy was known as “piktli”, which means "little pieces" in the Aztec language.

Most candies will keep 2 to 3 weeks (if not longer) if stored tightly covered in a cool, dry place or in the refrigerator. It's best to avoid storing different types of candy together in the same container because hard candies will become soft and sticky, and soft candies will dry out.

Most sweet-tasting foods contain sugar. The top of the tongue has special sensors called “taste buds” that detect sugar and other things in foods. When any type of sugar touches the tongue, taste buds send a signal to the brain. Then the brain reacts in a way that we feel as pleasure.

Candy contains bug poop – Okay, it's not really poop, but a common ingredient in candy called shellac (used to make candy shiny) comes from the excretion of the female Lac beetle.

So, it's no surprise that, for years now, Snickers has been the most popular candy bar in the United States -- and in the world.

Hard candies essentially have an indefinite shelf life, provided they are stored properly. Items like lollipops, Jolly Ranchers, and other individually wrapped candies do best without exposure to moisture.

What makes candy go bad? ›

"Light and heat will oxidize and causes rancid flavors, and those are the things that can affect, especially chocolates and candies, the most [in storage]," she said. "The cooler the temperature, the longer those ingredients are going to stay good tasting. ...

“In the case of most commercially processed foods, it's contamination during processing and packaging that leads to foodborne illness, not the age of the food. So, even after some time passes, candy should be safe to eat as long as it was properly handled and it remains unopened prior to eating.”

Candy. Numerous foods contain gelatin, a protein derived from the collagen in cow or pig bones, skin and connective tissues. It's often used as a thickening or stabilizing agent and can be found in a variety of candies, including Altoids, gummy candies and Starburst chews, among others.

Cane Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Vegetable Oil Food Acid (Citric), Fruit Juice Concentrates, Gelatine, Natural Flavours, Natural Food Colours (Anthocyanins, Grape Skin Extract, Paprika Oleoresin, Turmeric).

In general, candy is made by dissolving sugar into water to create a solution. Granulated sugar, the most common type used in candy-making, is sucrose, a disaccharide molecule made up of glucose and fructose.

Sugar is the primary ingredient in candy bars whereas cocoa forms the main component in chocolate bars. While candy bars can also include chocolate, they contain a higher ingredient of sugar and water or milk. Chocolate bars on the other hand contain milk, nuts, raisins and other ingredients in addition to cocoa.