On a recent trip to Portland, Greg and I visited a tea tasting room with my brother and his wife. It was a great experience — I consume crazy amounts of tea, but am woefully ignorant of the nuances of the historically-significant beverage. It was fun to taste them side by side and ask the server about her tips and recommendations. Meanwhile, my sister-in-law purchased a box of pink sea-glass-like candy from the front of the shop. Even though my dessert table was already fully-stocked and I was buried in nautical projects, I couldn’t resist googling sea glass candy to see what I’d find.
Of course, I found several easy recipes. What was surprising was how convincing the candy looked! And I had all the ingredients on hand (coconut extract being the only unusual one), so we made a tray. And then another. And another. We are STILL eating leftover sea glass candy. I think this is my first homemade candy, and despite not being a hard candy person, it was very rewarding!
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
6 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
food coloring (I made some green, some blue and some without color.)
cooking spray
powdered sugar
Equipment
candy thermometer
8×8 metal pan
Directions
1. Spray a metal pan with cooking spray. Wipe smooth with paper towel.
2. Stir the sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add the candy thermometer to the saucepan.
4. At 250 degrees, add the food coloring. Don’t stir.
5. At 300 degrees, carefully remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the coconut extract.
6. Pour the mixture into the metal pan.
7. Allow the pan to cool completely.
8. Hit the candy with a blunt object (e.g., knife handle) to shatter it. You can make the pieces as big or small as you like. (The more times you hit it, the smaller the pieces get.)
9. Toss the pieces with powdered sugar, wiping off any excess.
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