How’d you like to soothe your child’s throat (or your own) with a homemade, old-fashioned remedy that masquerades as a sweet treat?
It also works well as a bribe. Not that I would ever bribe my children! (cough cough)
Well, thanks to Mr. Charm’s dairy and egg allergies, I started down a path that I never would have imagined this pizza loving queen would travel: the world of Real Food. Who needs high fructose anything? What’s up with all the chemicals in our foods? Ugh! So, we eventually cut out all sodas, most refined sugar, and almost anything that came out of a package over the last two years.
I felt righteous about how healthily I was feeding my family. I felt crappy about how my children were going to be deprived of some of the treats I adored as a child. (Starbursts, anyone?)
So a while back, I stumbled on a really awesome recipe and bookmarked it to try for Mr. Charm. Then, of course, the summer came with a new baby and some serious stresses, and I never did make the time.
This week, Mr. Charm got a little cold. A little runny nose, some congestion, and a scratchy throat. It seemed the ideal time to give this brilliant idea a try!
What is this awesomeness, you may ask?
I know, right? Who doesn’t love honey? And it’s GOOD for you! Someone says I can turn it into a goodie for my kids? Sign me up!
So basically, I followed the Farmlife Chick’s recipe to the letter, so please go visit her website to read all her amazing instructions. (Frankly, go read her website even if you don’t want to make this treat – I’ve found at least 4 other recipes I can’t wait to try! She’s amazing!)
The gist of it is this:
Take 1/2 cup of honey (does it need mentioning that the ‘real thing’ straight from a honeybee is the best to use?) and put it in a heavy saucepan. Turn the fire up to somewhere between low and medium.
Get the honey boiling, and use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature. It needs to get to 300 degrees.
I may have boiled it a little too high and fast…but it worked!
While it’s getting warmed up, lay out a silpat or parchment paper and lay your lollipop sticks out with some space between them.
Yes, I know – that IS garlic I’m using to hold the paper flat! Improvise!
Lollipops just waiting to happen…
Once the honey is hot enough, start pouring it onto your sticks!
This is a new technique for me. I’ve never made candies before, and pouring was a little…uneven, on my part. The original poster made such beautiful lollipops, you would have thought they were store bought! Mine could never be mistaken for anything but homemade.
Sort of reminds me of amoeba’s, don’t you think?
A few of them ran together, and I only had a few come out nicely rounded; most had a lopsided shape to them. Oh well! It’s my first time trying it, and they taste amazing (so says the men in my household – honey isn’t on my diet yet). So I’m not concerned about the shape. I don’t think my two year old is, either!
Wait for them to cool down and then peel them right off the parchment paper and serve to your drooling toddler as he bounces next to you in the kitchen.
When you’re ready to store them, you can get some little treat bags and wrap them all up nicely, or do what I did, which was to use the original parchment paper, cut into strips, lay the pops down in a row and roll them up so they don’t touch each other and stick together. Then shove the whole mess into a Mason jar and screw the lid on.
They make the counter look so nice and festive!
If we gave him the chance, Mr. Charm would eat this whole jar in about two days.
For the record, I wound up with 25 lollipops from this 1/2 cup of honey. I was scrambling to add more sticks to the paper as I was pouring! So you may want to use a larger piece of parchment paper than you think you’ll need, just in case. This *may* have a little to do with why some of my suckers ran together.
This time, I made them just basic honey. Next time, I’ll add a little lemon juice to them for an extra healing kick. Wonder if some pureed garlic would taste okay? That would be an old wive’s tale trifecta of natural home healing!
Enjoy your candy making!
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HOMEMADE HONEY LOLLIPOPS
– 1/2 cup honey
– lollipop sticks
– parchment paper or silpat
– candy thermometer
- Pour 1/2 cup of honey into a heavy saucepan.
- Heat to 300 degrees over low-medium heat.
- Lay out your lollipop sticks on the parchment paper or silpat.
- Pour the heated honey on the end of the lollipop sticks.
- Let cool, and enjoy a sweet treat that heals!
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Do you have any Real Food, yummy candies that you’ve found your kids love? Please share!
Awesome job! They look sooo good! Thank you for the sweet words!
I know this was a while ago but did he have a fructmal reaction to these? I only wonder because honey has a massive fructose load
This was back before we started figuring out his fructmal issues, so we were just “used” to dealing with an aggressive, unpleasant child with horrible diapers all the time! So he probably did, but we weren’t paying attention to his food/behavior connection at the time. I have since cut all honey out of his diet because of the fructose load, so I don’t know if he would react to these (though I’m betting he would – he seems pretty sensitive so far).
I only left the recipe up because FructMal is not the *only* thing we’re dealing with, and other moms might want this recipe, especially if honey is their only safe sweetener!