Summertime Lollipops
The perfect companion after riding bikes through the sprinklers on a hot summer day is a tasty hard candy sucker and the kids like them too. HA! My kids love homemade hard suckers. They love to help make them too! What's not to love: sugar, water, corn syrup (sugar) and flavoring. I've made them the same way since I was a little girl with my mom. We've always used Lorann oils, but this time I decided to try essential oils after a few so-so batches.
Let me tell you the EO's make FANTASTIC tasting suckers! I recruited my wonderful neighbor to help me in a sucker making frenzy and after 600 suckers and about 20lbs of sugar it was hard to stop trying out new oils flavors.
Why essential oils? Essential oils are natural, derived from the peel, flower or leaf of plants. They literally are the aromatic essences of plants so by using EO's the hard candy tastes intense and fresh. I did use the other flavoring oils to make fun kid friendly flavors like Cotton Candy and Pina Colada. There just isn't a cotton candy essential oil, dangit!
I dipped some suckers in dark chocolate. The chocoholic in me couldn't resist! They were extra delicious but not hot weather friendly. Didn't this mason jar arrangement make a cute present for my neighbor? He turned 45 so this was just a sampling of the 45 suckers he got :)
EO suckers we made: Sweet Orange, Anise, Tangerine, Grapefruit, Lime, Lemon, Cinnamon, Peppermint and Lemon+Lime. I've got more essential oil sucker flavors in mind for next time.
Regular flavoring: Cotton Candy, Pina Colada, Butterscotch (next time Im making a real butterscotch sucker!)
