Lollipop Recipes

Steps:

• Place lollipop sticks in hard candy molds or arrange sticks 3 in. apart on greased foil-lined baking sheets; set aside., In a heavy saucepan, combine corn syrup and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook for 3 minutes to dissolve sugar crystals. Uncover and cook over medium-high heat, without stirring, until a candy thermometer reads 300° (hard-crack stage). , Remove from the heat; stir in flavoring and food coloring, keeping face away from mixture as odor is very strong. Immediately pour into prepared molds or pour free-form over ends of lollipop sticks on baking sheets. Let cool before removing.

Steps:

• If desired, add nuts to any or all of the chocolates. Pour the chocolate into the molds, filling them to the top. Set the sticks in place by inserting them just far enough to be secure within the mold you are using. Set the molds aside to allow the chocolate to set. When set, simply pop out the lollipops. If you are using molding compound, roll it into a 1/2-inch-thick rectangle on top of a sheet of parchment paper. Using a sharp paring knife, cut out whatever shapes you would like and remove the cutout, leaving the homemade mold. Spray the inside edge of the molding compound with vegetable cooking spray and pour the chocolate into the cut out space. Insert the lollipop sticks and let cool completely before removing the molding compound. When finished, the molding compound can be saved and reused for another day.
• How to Temper Chocolate (From Dessert Circus, Extraordinary Desserts You Can Make At Home by Jacques Torres): Chocolate is tempered so that after it has been melted, it retains its gloss and hardens again without becoming chalky and white (that happens when the molecules of fat separate and form on top of the chocolate). There are a variety of ways to temper. One of the easiest ways to temper chocolate is to chop it into small pieces and then place it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time on high power until most of the chocolate is melted. Be very careful not to overheat it. (The temperature of dark chocolate should be between 88 and 90 degrees F, slightly warmer than your bottom lip. It will retain its shape even when mostly melted. White and milk chocolates melt at a temperature approximately 2 degrees F less because of the amount of lactose they contain.) Any remaining lumps will melt in the chocolate's residual heat. Use an immersion blender or whisk to break up the lumps. Usually, chocolate begins to set, or crystallize, along the side of the bowl. As it sets, mix those crystals into the melted chocolate to temper it. A glass bowl retains heat well and keeps the chocolate tempered longer. Another way to temper chocolate is called seeding. In this method, add small pieces of unmelted chocolate to melted chocolate. The amount of unmelted chocolate to be added depends on the temperature of the melted chocolate, but is usually 1/4 of the total amount. It is easiest to use an immersion blender for this, or a whisk. The classic way to temper chocolate is called tabliering. Two thirds of the melted chocolate is poured onto a marble or another cold work surface. The chocolate is spread out and worked with a spatula until its temperature is approximately 81 degrees F. At this stage, it is thick and begins to set. This tempered chocolate is then added to the remaining non-tempered chocolate and mixed thoroughly until the mass has a completely uniform temperature. If the temperature is still too high, part of the chocolate is worked further on the cold surface until the correct temperature is reached. This is a lot of work, requires a lot of room, and makes a big mess. A simple method of checking tempering, is to apply a small quantity of chocolate to a piece of paper or to the point of a knife. If the chocolate has been correctly tempered, it will harden evenly and show a good gloss within a few minutes.

Steps:

• Place the lollipop sticks in the designated spots in a 10-pop silicone lollipop mold and put on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle each cavity with desired sprinkles. If the lollipop sticks poke out from the cavities, just push them back in.
• Melt the clear isomalt in a small saucepot over medium heat until it's melted completely. Mix in the lemon extract.
• Immediately pour the hot isomalt into a silicone cupcake mold and use that to pour the isomalt into the lollipop mold cavities, filling just slightly below the edge of the mold. Repeat until all the cavities are filled. Allow to set, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Once the lollipops are set, remove them from the mold by flipping the mold over and gently pressing to pop the lollipops out.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Beat cake mix, water, eggs, and oil in a bowl using an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more. Pour batter into the prepared baking dish.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 28 to 33 minutes. Cool completely, at least 1 hour.
• Crumble cake into a large bowl. Stir frosting into cake crumbles until mixture is sticky but not too smooth. Chill in refrigerator, at least 30 minutes.
• Roll cake mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls and arrange on a baking sheet. Place 1 lollipop stick into each ball.
• Melt about 1/4 cup chocolate candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave, about 20 seconds. Dip each cake pop in the melted chocolate. Repeat melting chocolate and dipping remaining cake pops. Decorate pops with decorating icing.

Steps:

• Prepare the lollipops: With a knife or kitchen shears, cut the skin and tendons around the bottom (the narrow end) of each drummette. Use a paring knife to scrape the meat from to bottom toward the top of the bone to form a lollipop shape; make sure the bone is scraped completely clean.
• Make the brine: To a saucepan, add 1 1/2 cups water and the vinegar, honey, salt, soy sauce, peppercorns, pepper flakes, garlic, star anise, bay leaf and ginger. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Pour the brine into a large bowl and add 1 1/2 cups ice to cool it down quickly. Add the chicken lollipops to the brine, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 hour. Remove the chicken and pat dry.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Prepare the dry rub: In a large bowl, combine the five-spice powder, garlic, ginger, mustard, paprika, salt and cayenne. Mix well to blend. Set aside 1 tablespoon of the rub for later use in sauce, then add the chicken and coat thoroughly with the rub.
• Arrange the chicken on a baking sheet, transfer to the oven and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the skin begins to turn golden. (This helps render some of the fat, so the drummettes fry up nice and crispy.) Remove from oven and set aside.
• While the drummettes are cooking, prepare the sauce: To a medium saute pan, add the sweet soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, honey, pepper flakes and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat; cook until the sauce has reduced by a third or so, about 10 minutes. Stir in the reserved tablespoon of the dry rub and keep warm while you fry the wings.
• Fill a large, heavy pot with 2 to 3 inches of oil, and heat to 350 degrees F over medium-high heat. Working in batches, fry the chicken wings in the oil until brown and crispy, 6 to 7 minutes. With a spider or slotted spoon, remove the fried chicken to a large mixing bowl. Add the sauce to the chicken and toss to coat.
• Transfer the chicken lollipops to a serving platter and garnish with the red pepper, scallions, cilantro and sesame seeds.

Steps:

• On a silpat or parchment lined baking tray, lay out lollipop sticks in rows, leaving 2 inches of space between them for fun free-form lollipops.
• Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a clean, dry, small saucepan (preferably one with a pouring spout) fitted with a candy thermometer and bring to a boil over high heat. Without stirring, cook until the mixture reaches 305 degrees F or "hard crack" stage on the candy thermometer. (While the syrup is cooking, occasionally wash down the sides of the pan with a clean brush dipped in water, to prevent crystallization.) Set up an ice bath in a sink.
• When the mixture is done, remove the pot from the heat and dip it into the ice bath for 15 seconds to stop the cooking. Remove the pot of syrup from the ice bath and stir in 1/2 teaspoon orange extract. Divide the sugar mixture between 2 heat-safe measuring cups. Color 1 measuring cup with yellow food coloring and the other with blue food coloring, stirring very gently with a wooden skewer so that the color is evenly distributed. To avoid air bubbles in the finished lollipops, stir the mixture gently in both directions, but be careful not to over mix.
• Pour or carefully spoon a little of the syrup around each lollipop stick, creating freeform designs covering at least a 1/4-inch of the end of each lollipop stick. Then add blue coloring to the yellow measuring cup to make green and add red food coloring to the blue measuring cup to make purple, and pour more syrup onto the pops.
• Re-warm the syrups in the microwave a few seconds at a time if they are cooling too much and setting up. Cool the lollipops for at least 20 minutes, until hard. Lift off the pan and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or 2 to 3 days if the weather is very humid.
• Notes about the recipe: Lollipops are the last thing you expect to see on a petit-four tray in a fancy restaurant ? so that's why I like to serve them last at mine. People burst out laughing when these jewel-like treats arrive on a silver platter after dessert. But then they sit back and savor those suckers right down to the stick! I never get tired of watching Chicago's most elegant diners licking lollipops like kids ? and taking a last few minutes to enjoy the evening.
• Using a very long stick makes these lollipops look and feel more fancy. The flower petals are also very pretty, but optional. If you plan to make these without lollipop molds, just arrange the sticks and petals on the cookie sheet. Let the syrup cool a bit to thicken it slightly, and then pour it over the ends of the sticks.

Steps:

• Arrange the lollipop sticks in the lollipop molds and place on a baking sheet. Set aside.
• Combine the sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to high and, without stirring, cook until the sugar is amber or until a candy thermometer reads between 300 to 310 degrees F (hard-ball stage), about 10 minutes (see Cook's Note*). Promptly remove the saucepan from the heat. Carefully stir in the flavored extract.
• Work quickly, drop 1 teaspoon of the hot mixture into each lollipop mold. Reheat the mixture briefly over low heat if it starts to thicken. Let the lollipops cool for at least 15 minutes. Remove from molds and store in airtight containers or wrap individually.

Steps:

• Put the sugar and cream of tartar into a saucepan with 200ml hot water. Gently heat until the sugar has completely melted, then increase the heat and boil until the mixture reaches the 'hard crack' stage on a sugar thermometer (or a small spoonful dropped into cold water sets hard). Remove from heat immediately and swirl in peppermint essence and enough green colouring to give a pale green colour - start by adding just one drop at a time.
• Cover a heatproof surface with baking parchment. Using a metal spoon, carefully pour some peppermint syrup onto the paper - roughly ½-1 tbsp per lolly. Push a lolly stick into each. If the syrup becomes too thick, just put the pan back over a gentle heat briefly. But if the syrup is too hot and runny, the shapes won't be as even so set it aside for a minute. Set lollies until hard.
• To clean equipment after lollipop making drop everything back into the pan, fill with water and bring to the boil.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place a large heatproof glass measuring cup with a spout in oven.
• In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cream of tartar. In a medium saucepan (just large enough to cover burner on stove), bring 1 cup water, corn syrup, and sugar mixture to a boil, slowly stirring, over medium heat. Moisten a pastry brush with water and brush down sides of pan. Continue cooking until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer. (Do not add thermometer to saucepan before mixture comes to a boil, as it will crystallize around thermometer).
• Remove saucepan from heat; let stand until cooled to 275 degrees. Add food coloring and lemon extract; stir to combine.
• Remove glass measuring cup from oven. Transfer mixture to glass measuring cup; return measuring cup to oven until no bubbles remain, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Fill a baking dish with an even layer of popcorn kernels or rice; set a 3 1/2-inch-wide and 1/4-to-1 1/2-inch-deep mold in popcorn to hold steady. Place a lollipop stick in mold and pour candy mixture into mold. Let set at room temperature, until mold and sugar mixture are room temperature, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, keep remaining candy mixture warm in oven. Carefully remove lollipop from mold and repeat process with remaining candy mixture.