Crack Candy
For Danielle:
My mom’s recipe. I haven’t made it myself (yet).
Ingredients:
4 cups white sugar
1 cup water
1 cup white Karo syrup
pinch of salt
food coloring of choice
1 dram of flavoring oil (try looking for these in a craft store, she thought – possibly in the grocery store. And you can’t use extracts. Red said so. Thanks Red!)
Drams look like this. Extracts look like this.
Stir ingedients together before cooking and place in larger saucepan (mix will boil up about double so make sure it’s a deep enough pan). Boil to 300F on a candy thermometer, but don’t stir. Just watch the thermometer. Candy thermometer is a must, so says my mother.
Prepare a deep-sided cookie sheet by sprinkling 1/2 inch of powdered sugar on the bottom.
Remove candy from heat and quickly stir in flavor and food coloring.
Pour onto prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle top with additional powdered sugar and set somewhere to cool. My mom used to set them outside in the cold. Once cool, simply crack it up into pieces.
Tip #1: The candy mixture sets up very quickly so stir and pour pretty fast. My mom used an old wooden spoon when scraping the candy out of the pan in case she ended up having to toss the spoon away. Immediately fill the saucepan with hot, soapy water or you’ll have a devil of a time getting it clean. Or, reheat (and remelt the candy stuck on the sides of the pan) and then quickly wash it.
Tip #2: Don’t get the drams of oil on your hands. They burn I guess.
This sounds difficult. She says it isn’t but I think she lies. 
Uncategorized | kaya | 
Sunday December 21st, 2008 10:20am
-scribbles it down-
Since you like candy, I have to wonder, (with you being in Marquette and all) have you made Maple candy yet? You pour maple syrup into pretty designs on some fresh new snow in a pan, and it hardens and it is nommeh.
You can’t SAFELY use an extract as a substitute for a dram of oil. Because extracts have such a high water content compared to the oil you run a serious risk of injuring yourself pretty badly with steam if you pour extract into your candy.
Flavor oils are usually available at any cake/candy making stores and a good place I’ve found to order pretty much any flavor from is Kitchen Krafts.
Another cool use for the flavor drams is to add just a drop or two to a bottle of lube–peppermint works great for this. It works much like the “warming” lubes that you buy but smells sooooo much better. Seriously though, just a drop or two per bottle to start because it will make your skin tingly.
A candy thermometer is definitely a must. There are few things more delicate and precise than candy making.
The only thing difficult about that recipe is the swiftness and accuracy you’ll need during the critical temperature periods. Otherwise it’s a walk in the park.
YUMMY
It sounds like the stuff we used to call rock candy. At the fair, and other places you can get it crushed and stuck on a stick like a lollypop. I have never tried making it since HS home-ec class cuz i’m sure i’ll burn myself silly.
You can watch crystals grow and then eat the results. Make rock candy crystals.
1. Put 1/2 cup of water into a pan. Add 1 cup sugar. Heat it over a low flame until the sugar dissolves. Do not stir. Let it boil for one minute.
2. Pour the warm syrup into a glass (plastic). Hang a weighted string into the syrup. Let it stand at room temperature.
3. Large crystals will begin to form in about 1 week. You may need to break the crust to keep the water evaporating.
Some growers gently tap the glass.
Grow crystals on a stick for a rock lollipop.
Maybe this is how they make the lolly’s. idk
Heh … I thought you meant “crack,” like the cocaine kind! (I guess that would really be the pb fudge recipe, huh?!)
I made three batches yesterday. My grandmother called it Stained Glass candy. I shatter the cand with the edge of a spoon. Just swing it down and break up any large clumps, then throw the shards into a bag with powdered sugar. Toss the candy in the sugar and presto! I made cherry, lemon, and butter rum.
Isn’t a dram just a unit of measure, like an ounce or a pound? Wouldn’t the stuff you are talking about for flavoring be called and oil? i get that there is a difference between an oil and an extract. i am glad you pointed that out. i would be one of those people who might try a substitute, so i appreciate you teaching me that. Thanks for posting this recipe and the fudge one too. i may try them both.
@ dragonfly You were right in your second post. The crystals on the sticks were grown there and are called rock candy. My problem is in being patient enough to wait for them to form *lol*
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This candy is super good, but if you make cinnamon, prepare for your face to feel like it’s on fire. Don’t ask me why, but every time I make that flavor, I have the same reaction, as do other people I know lol
back in nursing school we learned that a dram equals 4ml. a teaspoon is 5ml. So an amount just shy of a teaspoon.
In addition to what Red said.. because extracts have a high water (and alcohol) content, they won’t emulsify in candies. You’ll have plain candy that sweats flavoured water. Yuck.
Flavour oils are also more concentrated and will, therefore, last a lot longer because it only takes a little.
Thank you very much
This was very helpful, I will keep this recipe and use it soon, the weather has been so horrible here in lower Michigan lately that I don’t think I will be able to get out to get the ingredients before Christmas, and that is really a bummer. But I will at least try this, it does look a bit hard to do but im sure it will turn out okay.
Happy Holidays!