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How to Make Candy at Home

At home making candy is a fun creative rewarding pastime for kids of all ages. Either way, homemade candy works nice for a family bonding session or even as an opportunity for your kids to get a hands on experience in the kitchen. It’s also easy, and you can control the ingredients and the flavors, colors and shapes to your liking. The following candy recipes are kid friendly and this is a guide to help you with easy to follow candy recipes and tips and tricks on how to successful candy make.

Why Make Candy at Home?

There are several reasons why making candy at home is a great idea:

Creative Fun: Making candy can stimulate your kid’s creativity and have them explore different flavours, colours, and shapes.
Healthier Options: Often, store bought candy is full of artificial ingredients and preservatives. Home made candy allows you to choose healthier, all natural options.
Educational: Cooking for kids also ties in lots of basic math skills, such as measuring ingredients, as well as the science behind cooking (temperature control, chemical reactions, etc.) — all while making candy.
Cost-Effective: Store bought versions is not only way more expensive than homemade candy, but you can make it at a fraction of the price.

You, with just a few ingredients and tools, can make all sorts of candy kids will love—and it’s not as hard as you think!

Ingredients and Tools You’ll Need for Homemade Candy

Making candy at home can also be extremely simple, as many of the tools and ingredients are always found in most kitchens. That said, the things you’ll need can vary with what you’re making the candy from. Here’s a basic list:

Common Ingredients:

Sugar: Sugar is the foundation of almost all of the candy recipes out there, they provide sweetness and structure.
Corn syrup: It helps prevent crystallization, and provides candy with a smooth feeling.
Butter: It gives a richness and flavor to, for example, toffees or caramels.
Flavor extracts: You can season the taste of your candy with vanilla, peppermint, lemon and other extracts.
Gelatin: Also used in gummy candies, gelatin is a key component to the chewiness of those candies.
Chocolate: Milk, dark, or white chocolate; you’ll need this for recipes such as chocolate dipped treats.
Food coloring: It’s optional but really fun, especially if your kid wants bright, seasonal candy.
Sprinkles or crushed nuts: For decoration or added texture.

Tools:

Candy thermometer: In order to accurately measure your temperature of the sugar mixture.
Silicone molds: Ideal for lollis, gummy candies, chocolate candies.
Saucepan: Used to heat and melt sugar or chocolate to make fondue.
Lollipop sticks: Necessary for making homemade lollipops.
Baking sheets and parchment paper: Good for laying out dipped or hard candies to cool.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making Candy at Home

1. Easy Gummy Candy

Kids love gummy candies because they are fun and chewy and they are bright colors. It’s such a simple recipe, and customizable with different flavors and shape too.

Ingredients:

Any flavor your kids like, 1 cup of fruit juice
3 tablespoons of unflavored gelatin
Honey or sugar to taste in 2 tablespoons
A few drops of food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

Place the fruit juice in a saucepan over low heat until it’s warm but not boiling (do not boil).
Sprinkle the gelatin into the juice, gradually, while stirring. Continue stirring until the gelatin has no more dissolved.
Add honey or sugar to taste. If you’re using food color, add it now to you gummies to make them fun.
Place the mixture into silicone candy molds or pour into a shallow baking dish lined with parchment paper.
Leave it in the fridge and let set for at least 1-2 hours before transferring to the refrigerator.
Remove the gummies from the molds shortly after they’ve been firm or cut them into bite size pieces for easy storage.

Tip: For kids who like making candy fun, try using different shaped molds, like stars or animals.

2. Homemade Lollipops

Lollipops are a classic candy and making them at home is easier than you thought. Then you can add your choice of flavors and colors and you can even turn your kids into helping you decorate.

Ingredients:

1 cup of sugar
½ cup of corn syrup
¼ cup of water
1 teaspoon of flavored extract (such as peppermint or lemon)
Food coloring (optional)
Lollipop sticks

Instructions:

Place sugar, corn syrup, and water in a sauce pan and add water. Then, stir until the sugar completely dissolves.
When the sugar dissolves, pull mixture off heat and bring to a boil. Take the temperature to 300°F with a candy thermometer check.
Cool the saucepan over heat and quickly stir in the extract and food coloring, those will not absorb heat any better than water did.
In the lollipop molds, or on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper, carefully pour hot syrup down, spoonfull by spoonful. Insert the lollipop sticks.
When removed from the molds, let the lollipops cool completely first.

Tip: For a lollipops with a sparkling finish kids will enjoy, you can add edible glitter or sprinkles.

3. Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels

This sweet and salty bliss in one treat is kid and adult approved! They are also quick and easy to make and plus!

Ingredients:

Pretzel rods
1 cup of chocolate chips (any type: milk, dark, or white)
Add sprinkles, crushed nuts, or mini candies for decoration

Instructions:

Live up to your pious chocolate chip Jesus by putting them in the microwave for 20 seconds a time, stirring each one until smooth.
Place each pretzel rod into the melted chocolate diptetly and top with melted chocolate.
Wishing you dipped pretzel rods in sprinkles or crushed nuts before the chocolate sets.
Preheat oven to 400′ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and put the pretzels on the sheet and let them cool and set.

Tip: For a festive look, try to use diverse types of chocolate, such as white chocolate with colored sprinkles.

More Fun Candy Recipes for Kids

4. Peanut Butter Fudge

This is a simple and super easy recipe for peanut butter lovers and kids can help, too!

Ingredients:

2 cups of peanut butter
2 cups of powdered sugar
½ cup of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
Mix in the peanut butter and vanilla extract then remove from heat.
Let the mixture gradually thicken, and stir in the powdered sugar until smooth.
Put the mixture in a lined baking dish, press it down and let it set in the fridge for around an hour.
Serve cut into small squares.

5. Marshmallow Pops

What’s great about this no-bake recipe is it’s for parties AND it’s easy enough even for the youngest candy makers.

Ingredients:

Huge marshmallows
1 cup of liquefied chocolate (any assortment)
Arranged sprinkles or squashed nuts

Instructions:

Push a lollipop stick into each marshmallow.
Melt some chocolate and put the marshmallow in it. Roll it quickly in sprinkles or crushed nuts.
Let those marshmallow pops cool and harden on a parchment paper.

Tips and Tricks for Successful Candy Making

Use a Candy Thermometer

When working with sugar, precision is key. A candy thermometer helps ensure that your candy reaches the right temperature for different textures (soft ball, hard crack, etc.).

Stir with Care

Like that a stirring sugar when it is melting can sometimes cause it to crystallize; this gives the texture a gritty feel. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then stop—don’t stir further.

Fun Flavor Combinations

Experiment with different flavor extracts — don’t be afraid! Your possibilities to combine vanilla and strawberry extracts to have a creamy fruity flavor or lemon and lime for the zest citrus twist.

Get Creative with Shapes

Kids will love the candy that you make in shapes like with a cookie cutter or silicon mold. To make your homemade candy more special, star shaped gummies or heart shaped lollipops will do the job.

FAQs About Making Candy at Home

Q: Can I use natural food coloring?

A: Yes! If you don’t want artificial dyes then natural food coloring is a great option. If you want to add color to your candy naturally you can use beet juice (red), turmeric (yellow), or matcha powder (green) as ingredients.

Q: How can I store homemade candy?

A: The best results will be store homemade candy in an airtight container at room temperature. After two weeks most candies will still be good and will last up to about a month, but keep away from heat and humidity as they can also have a negative effect on texture.

Q: Can I make sugar-free candy?

A: Yes! Sugar substitutes, like stevia or erythritol (one of my favorites especially) can even be used in some candy recipes. Just a heads up, however, the texture may be just a tad different from candy that does not contain regular sugar sweetener.

Q: Are there vegan alternatives for candy-making?

A: Absolutely. Vegan candies can be substituted by agar agar (a plant thickener) instead of gelatin and dairy free chocolate or plant based butter alternatives.

Final thoughts

Home candy making is a fun, engaging, educational activity for kids to participate in. The possibilities are endless with your little one in the kitchen from easy gummy candies to chocolate dipped pretzels. And here’s my surprise and results, you can whip these up with simple ingredients and just a little patience without sacrificing the love or taste of extra store bought candy. Take your kids up on it, gather your ingredients, and then enjoy the sweet products!

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