About the Recipe
Oh winter.....it can be such a beautiful time, with the snow falling outside making everything feel quiet and cozy. Holidays and lots of yummy baking, make it a time of joy and good company. But on the flip side, it also means cold and flu season has returned (joy oh joy)! For those of you with young ones, this can mean having someone at home with the sniffles and a scratchy throat week after week. It also means having to come up with creative ways to gently soothe the symptoms and entertain the young restless minds. Hard sore throat lozenges are not recommended for little kids, due to the chocking hazard. My go-to therefore, was to try and get the lollipop version of the lozenges. However, this year they have been impossible to find. This led me to want to try and make homemade ones. The problem I encountered however, is that all the recipes I found had a lot of sugar in them. I mean, it makes sense, the hard candy nature of lollipops requires sugar, but not what I really wanted for a somewhat healthy sore throat remedy. I decided to omit the extra sugar and see what happens. In my opinion, and doubly approved by my kids, these two ingredient lollies are delicious and do the job just fine. The texture ends of being like a hard taffy (so less brittle than a traditional lollipop) but I discovered that if you stick them in the fridge they not only get much harder, they also end up having a nice cooling effect. Not only do these lollipops give some welcome distraction to the ailing, the honey is soothing and it is a fun activity to do (although I recommend that only adults handle the heated honey as it is very hot). I will definitely be making these again. I might try and add in some ginger next time as well. You can play around with the amount of lemon you add in depending on individual preferences. Let me know if you try them and what you think. Wishing you all a warm and healthy winter!
Ingredients
1 cup Honey
2- 4 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
You'll need:
Candy thermometer
Lollipop sticks
Preparation
In a small saucepan mix together the honey and lemon.
Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil until the temperature on the thermometer reads 300F. (Be very careful when handling! Honey will be very hot!!)
Once you have reached 300F, remove from heat right away. Let the honey mixture sit for 10-15 minutes or until the honey mixture has cooled down slightly.
Pour into silicone mold if you have. Insert lollipop stick and rotate the stick so that all sides are covered. Alternatively, if you do not have a mold, you can pour small 2'' circles onto a lined baking dish. Insert the lollipop stick and rotate until covered on both sides.
Let cool for 30 minutes or until the honey is no longer hot. Due to the fact that there is no added sugar in this recipe, the texture of the lollipops will be like a firm taffy. I put them in the fridge so they get even harder.
Store in parchment paper or a mason jar.
