This magical rock candy will have you singing your favorite holiday tunes.
Ingredients
- 2 cups purified water
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- Optional: 1 tsp. flavoring extract
- Optional: 2–3 drops of food coloring
Special Materials
- Tall glass jar
- Wooden skewers
- Clothespin or potato chip clip
Directions
Preparing the materials:
1. Wash glass jar thoroughly with hot water and let dry.
2. Wet the skewer and roll it in granulated sugar. Place on a clean paper towel and let dry.
Making the sugar syrup:
3. Place water in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil.
4. Add sugar one cup at a time, stirring constantly until sugar completely dissolves before adding another cup. If the sugar stops dissolving, turn up the heat (this will help the sugar to start dissolving once more).
5. Continue to stir and boil the sugar syrup until all of the sugar is completely dissolved and the syrup is clear. Remove from heat.
6. If you are using flavoring extract and/or food coloring, add them at this point. Stir syrup to ensure extract and food coloring are distributed evenly. Fun tip: Try to coordinate the color and flavor—red for strawberry, purple for grape, yellow for banana, etc.
7. Let sugar syrup cool for about 15–20 minutes. If there is still undissolved sugar, run the syrup through a strainer and keep only the liquid.
Making the rock candy:
8. Pour sugar syrup into the prepared jar almost to the top.
9. Fasten a clothespin or a potato chip clip to one end of the prepared skewer, then balance the clothespin (or potato chip clip) across the mouth of the jar so that the skewer is suspended about one inch from the bottom of the jar and away from its walls. (Be careful not to let the skewer touch the bottom or the walls of the jar or else the rock candy will grow there.) If necessary, you may use more than one clothespin or potato chip clip.
10. Cover the jar loosely with plastic wrap and store in a cool place away from noise or activity, allowing it to sit undisturbed. Any vibrations (such as from music or the television) may disturb the crystals and cause them to fall off the skewer.
11. You should start to see sugar crystals forming within six hours. If you don’t see any crystals within a day, try boiling the sugar syrup again but dissolve another cup of sugar in it. Pour sugar syrup into the jar once more and insert the skewer again.
12. Wait one to two weeks before removing the skewer from the jar. Resist the urge to touch the jar as it may cause the crystals to fall off. When you are satisfied with the amount of crystals on the skewer (or they appear to have stopped growing), carefully remove the skewer from the jar and lay on wax paper to dry.
13. If there is a crust on the surface of the syrup, use a butter knife to gently break through the crystals, avoiding the crystals near your skewer. If the rock candy on your skewer is stuck to the glass, run some hot water on the bottom of the jar. This should help loosen the sugar enough so that you can pull your skewer out without damaging the crystals.