A Modern Twist to an Old Favorite.

This year, Northern Indiana experienced a record-breaking amount of snow fall, which for this teacher meant a lot of time at home in January. I felt like I was in a constant battle with cabin fever, looking for any way to keep myself busy. One of the activities that crossed my mind was making my own rock candy, which is rather time consuming to my surprise. Not an instant gratification project but a rewarding one in the end.

Step One:

Gather supplies: flavorings, jars, skewers or doll rods, clothes pins, a funnel, a medium size pot, and as much sugar as you can beg, borrow or steal.

Step Two:

Line up clean jars in a row near the stove and make sure you have your funnel handy. In a saucepan mix sugar in a 1:3 ratio, heat to a boil and stir periodically to keep it from sticking to the bottom. When the sugar begins to dissolve in the water, it is time to add your flavorings!

Step Three:

Fill your jars nearly to the top, allowing some room for the mixture to expand. Use the clothespins to keep the skewers from not touching each other or the bottom and sides of the jar.

Step Four:

Place the jars in a place where they can sit for a few days. My rock candy took about a week to set up to where I was happy with it.

I tried a lot of flavors for the fun of it.

1. Lemon and Lavender (sugar, water, ¼ cup lemon juice, dried lavender)

2. Mint grapefruit (sugar, water, ½ cup grapefruit juice, sprinkling of dried mint)

3. Raspberry mocha (sugar, water, 3 tablespoons ground coffee, 1 tablespoon cocoa, 1 tsp. raspberry flavoring)

4. Orange crème (sugar, water, 3 tsp. orange candy flavoring, 2 tsp. vanilla extract)

5. Root beer (sugar, water, 3 tsp. root beer candy flavoring)

6. Apricot pie (sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, water, ¾ cup apricot syrup from homemade caned apricots, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. whole cloves)

In about three to six days the rock candy will be ready to come out of the jars. You will see the rock candy starting to set up and crystalize in the jar after a few days. If you do not see this, chances are that the sugar ratio that you used was too low. You may need to pour the liquid back in a sauce pan, heat and add more sugar. When the candy is ready, simply remove it from the jar and let the excess drip off. I let mine rest on wax paper before putting them in a jar. By allowing them to rest horizontally, any extra liquid did not drip down the stick, where you hold the rock candy.

If you are brace enough to try this fun treat, let me know how it turns out for you!