Broken Glass Hard Candy

I remember back in the '80s my friends bringing the "broken glass" candy into school and loving to try all the different flavors that their moms had made. It was so good! I forgot about it until this year when my mom told me one of her friends always makes it and this year she was going to show my mom how easy it was.

I decided I wanted to try it as well. I figured I would start with just two flavors. Some cinnamon (red) and spearmint (green) for Christmas. You will need a candy thermometer. I mean, unless you are a candy making pro (which I am not). Also, you will need flavoring oil. NOT extract. I could not find flavoring oil at the grocery store. I found it at Hobby Lobby in the candy/cake decorating area.

Broken Glass Hard Candy

2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon flavoring oil (not extract)
1/2 teaspoon food coloring
Powdered sugar

Prepare a cookie sheet by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.  I like Pam for Baking.  Use a paper towel to spread around and remove excess.

In a 2-3 quart saucepan, mix the sugar, corn syrup and water together well. Turn the heat on to medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Once it is dissolved, stop stirring and let it come to a boil. Keep boiling without stirring until temp reaches 260 degrees. (You may want to put a splatter screen over the pot to keep your stove top clean, but be sure to keep an eye on the thermometer.) Once the temperature reaches 260 degrees, add the food coloring but DO NOT STIR it. The food coloring will mix into the candy automatically by the boiling. Continue boiling without stirring until the temperature reads 300 degrees on the thermometer. Remove from heat.

Let the boiling die down just a little, and pour in the flavoring, but keep your face turned away from the pot. It will make some crazy steam and you will not be able to breathe. Seriously. Stir the oil in quickly and pour onto the prepared sheet. Candy will start to harden immediately. It will not fill the pan. That is ok. You just want a thin sheet of candy anyway.

When the candy is cool to the touch on the top and on the bottom of the pan, place a sheet of wax paper over top and and use a small hammer to tap the candy and break it into pieces.

Carefully scoop the candy into a gallon ziplock bag and put 2 heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar into the bag with it. Shake to coat the candy to keep it from sticking together.

This is another one of those recipes that sounds harder than it is. I don't know the exact time it takes because I only go by the thermometer. But it does take awhile. You can double this recipe easily. And I recommend it because it does take so long to cook. Have two baking sheets ready.

Please note that when I saw "small hammer", I really mean that. The first time I made it I just used my meat tenderizing mallet. Let's just say I had a lot of candy "dust". And you just want to tap it. If you pound it, you will end up with dust.

Like I said earlier in this post, I made both cinnamon and spearmint, mixed them together, and put it in small glass jars I purchased from Hobby Lobby!   The big jar you see in the picture is our jar for home!

These make cute, inexpensive gifts. I filled eight of these small jars by making just one batch of each color. The jar holds about 3/4 cup of candy!