How to Make Lollipops (in a mini muffin tin)

Want to make homemade lollipops but don’t have a candy mold? I’ll teach you how to make lollipops in a mini muffin tin!

My Homemade Lollipops with Flavored Sparking Water post got such a great response, I thought I would put together some Christmas ones for you.  The idea is simple — after creating the lollipop mixture and adding the coloring, you pour the mixture into the sections in a mini muffin tin and insert a lollipop stick. No need for traditional lollipop molds because the muffin tin is your mold!

These are very similar to the homemade Halloween lollipops I did, but with a twist — I added white icing color to make the lollipops opaque (nontransparent). It’s really easy!

To flavor my homemade lollipops, I created them with Clear American Flavored Sparkling Water. By using flavored water, you don’t have to add (or spend money on) extra flavorings or extracts.

For my homemade Christmas lollipops, I used Raspberry Blackberry, White Grape, and Wild Cherry flavors of Clear American Flavored Sparkling water. No special reason other than that they sounded good and I felt that they go well with the holidays.  All of them tasted great in our lollipops, but my favorite was the Raspberry Blackberry ones.

You’ll also need sugar, corn syrup, food coloring, white icing color (or white food color), and lollipop sticks. Also, while I show liquid food color in the photo below, I actually used a gel food color because it helped me get a more intense color. But you can use either.

You’ll need a mini muffin tin, measuring cups, and a candy thermometer. You’ll also need a heavy-bottomed pot and a spoon or two.

You’ll need  1 cup of sugar, 1/2  cup of Clear American Flavored Sparkling Water, and 1/3 cup corn syrup.

In your pot, you’ll combine them and heat them the mixture over medium-high heat, just until the sugar is dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved, you’ll clip your candy thermometer to the side of your pan and stop stirring. It’s very important that you don’t stir the mixture after the sugar is dissolved.

Heat the mixture over medium-high heat – without stirring – until it reaches 300 degrees F. Remove from heat immediately.

Add 1/4 teaspoon white food coloring and stir it in. You can use more if you aren’t happy with how white your mixture is, but I find 1/4 teaspoon to be enough for me. If I was not adding additional color, I would probably have added more.

Then, add in the food coloring of your choice. Add a bit and stir it in — add more to achieve the look you desire. Immediately pour into greased muffin tin sections. I fill each section about 1/3 of the way up (2/3 of the section is empty).

Continue until you’ve used up all the mixture.

Sprinkle with colored sugars, nonpareils, crushed candies, or any other decorative candy. This is purely optional, but I love the way the Christmas themed nonpareils look.

Insert a lollipop stick into the center of each one of the lollipop mixtures. The stick won’t stay standing up until the mixture has cooled a bit, but the trick is to make sure to insert them before they cool too much, so insert them, but keep standing them up in the center as they fall over.

When they are fully cooled, they are ready to remove from the muffin tin. Grasp the stick close to where the candy is and give a gentle back and forth motion and pull directly upwards. It should pull out, but if not, try again.

To package the lollipops, I cut a square or clear cellophane and wrap the candy. I secure the cellophane with ribbon, fabric, or as you see in the photo below, a piece of mesh tied into a bow.

The best thing about muffin tin lollipops? They stand up perfectly! You can display them at a party on a serving tray or plate!

Muffin Tin Lollipops with Flavored Sparking Water

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• Author: Brandie Valenzuela

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Description

Want to make homemade lollipops but don’t have a candy mold? I’ll teach you how to make lollipops in a mini muffin tin!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup Clear American Flavored Sparkling Water (any flavor – available at Walmart)
• 1/4–1/2 teaspoon white icing color or white food color (if you wish them to be opaque)
• Food coloring (any color)
• Candies or Nonpareil cake decorations (optional)
• Lollipop sticks
• Transparent Cellophane or Clear Treat Bags
• Fabric Strips (Ribbon, Raffia, or Twist Ties)
• Mini Muffin Tin (or hard candy molds if you have them)

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Instructions

1. In a heavy bottomed pot, combine sugar, light corn syrup, and Clear American flavored water. Heat mixture over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is complete dissolved. Clip candy thermometer to inside of pot and stop stirring.
2. Allow mixture to heat (with NO stirring) until mixture reaches 300 degrees F, also known as the hard crack stage.
3. While sugar mixture is heating, grease the inside of each mini muffin tin.
4. When sugar mixture has reached 300 degrees, turn heat off immediately, and remove pan from burner. Working quickly, stir in white icing color (if you wish to have opaque lollipops). Then, stir in the other desired color you wish to use. Start with a little and stir. If you want it more intense or darker, stir in a bit more color in until you achieve the color you wish.
5. Carefully spoon hot sugar mixture into greased mini muffin tins – a 2-3 teaspoons in each is good, however you can add as little or as much as you wish.
6. Place lollipop sticks into the middle of each muffin tin while lollipop mixture is still very hot. If they won’t stand yet, keep setting them upright; as the mixture cools, the sticks will stop falling.
7. When mixture is fully cooled and hardened, removed from muffin tin by grasping stick very low near the candy. A gentle back & forth movement can help release the lollipop.

• Category: Candy
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: 10 ingredients,

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Disclosure: This #ClearAmerican #cbias shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, which is a vendor for Cott Beverages Inc., the manufacturer of Clear American^® brand beverages. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own.