herbal honey candy/coughdrops
We made herbal candy (medicinal drops) for the first time last week. Little bit challenging I must admit, but fun and tasty! Our candy was basically a peppermint candy with a bit of beebalm, thyme, and sage added for a cold fighting punch.
What you need:
4 cups dried herb(s) of your choice
4 cups water
3-4 cups honey
cream of tartar
candy thermometer
large soup pot
jelly roll pan or candy molds
parchment paper or non-stick spray
confectioner’s sugar or arrow root powder
Directions:
1. Make a strong tea infusion by using 1 cup dried herbs to 1 cup water. Our herb combination was 3 1/2 cups dried peppermint, 1/4 cup sage, 1/4 cup beebalm and 4 tablespoons thyme. Put herbs directly into the water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let steep for about an hour. Strain herbs from the tea. We were left with 2 1/2 cups of tea.
2. Put the tea back into a LARGE soup pot, add 1 1/2 cups honey for each cup of tea. I had 2 1/2 cups of tea so I added close to 4 cups of honey to the tea. Add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar for each cup of tea.
3. Turn the stove on high and bring the mixture to a boil. You want the temperature of the honey/tea mixture to reach 300 degrees. This is where the challenge came for us. Once the mixture was boiling, the bubbles wanted to go over the edge of the pot; I would turn down the heat, then the temperature wouldn’t rise. So I would turn up the heat again, more boil over…..vicious cycle. I thought about quiting at one point, but all that honey down the drain would be wrong, so we persevered. We finally found a temperature where the temperature would climb and the bubbles wouldn’t reach the edge of the pan. It took us about 45 minutes to get to 300 degrees!
4. Finally, after reaching 300 degrees, pour the syrup onto a parchment lined jelly roll pan (or use a non-stick spray, you don’t want your candy to stick). There are special candy molds you can use as well, just make sure it can handle the 300 degree heat of the syrup! You could use a spoon and mix the bubble layer into the thicker bottom layer, but I preferred to keep the bubble on top to create a pretty layered look when the candy hardened.
5. The hardest part for the little ladies was waiting for the candy to cool and harden! I eventually put it in the freezer to quicken the process, and to keep the little ladies out of the syrup! Sticky fingers were all around!
6. Once the candy hardens, break it into pieces and coat in confectioner’s sugar or arrow root powder to keep the candies from sticking to each other. Our candy is soft and chewy when it reaches room temperature so I store it in the freezer. The candies should keep for at least 6 months stored in the freezer.
It turned out very tasty and we will make more in the future. I’ve always wanted to make horehound candy, but I don’t have any of the dried herb right now; I need to order some along with the elderberries! If you are a candy maker and have any advice in this process I would love to hear it! We did do some research on the science behind cooking candy and found this fantastic website- The Accidental Scientist- Science of Cooking. All kinds of good stuff there!
If I can not get bee balm, what would you suggest instead?
Lemonbalm would be a good one or just increase the peppermint or any of the other herbs you are using.
I finally tried this. Finally had time…anyway, I let mine get to 300 degrees but I think it looks very dark and taste rather stout. Does yours taste the same? I am wondering if yours taste that way. Of course, this is all new to me so I haven’t a real clue what it should taste like.
Just curious. Thanks. C.
excellent. This is what I always wanted…thanks for sharing the recipe.
I linked to it on my blog!
Yum! I want to make some.
Yummie and good
Mine is cooling down right now. And all of a sudden all my children are coughing
I had some diced onions in it, too. I didn’t add beebalm, didn’t have it.
Next time I add ribwort to it as well.
The water amount was not enough for me, either I didn’t measure the herbs well, or I don’t know. I just went with what felt right to me. But it took pretty long till it reached 300 F. I had a steady, but slowly increase, but had to turn it off once, so we can have dinner
Thanks for the great recipe!
update:
I can’t cut them, but I roll them, that’s working…
but, yes, very sticky…
I had one in my mouth and ‘complained’ to my husband, that it’s very sticky and it sticks to my teeth. He just said, that must be the reason, while the kids are so quiet now, their mouths are sticked together *lol*
No, you can’t cut these guys. I stuck mine in the freezer, they are easy to break apart when cold by “slamming” them into the side of a large bowl or breaking with your hands. Yes, they are quite sticky, almost taffy like! Love your husband’s comment!
wow…what a great idea. i hope that this winter i may find the time to try something like this…crossing my fingers. you certainly have some of the greatest ideas here:) thanks! pennie
I’m so amazed by the wonderful quality of your crafts and concoctions! I’ll bet it will be a wonderful comfort to use these candies when you are feeling sick. Beth
And not sick Beth; you’d be surprised how many times the girls have down with a cough and sore throat since we made these! So funny!
I just put the infusion in a glass jar, and I am excited to get these going. I have been searching for herbal cold remedies over the past few days (for the coming season), and this is perfect. I will also be ordering some elderberries to day to make the syrup. Thank you for sharing
Heather, please share and let me know how they turned out! Good luck with that 300 degree temperature!
What a great excuse to make delicious things. I must say, I won’t be trying that myself, way too challenging. The pictures are amazing!!
Wow, that’s impressive!!
Great project! I love making candy and don’t have a lot of recipes using honey in place of sugar. Plus I have a ton of different dried mint to use up!
wooooh yummy!
i can’t wait to try this recipe! but .. you can’t boil/heat honey … ayurveda says it kills the benefits and makes its toxic … but i am not professional to advise you! do what’s best
Sincerely,
Mariam
Mariam, I don’t doubt that taking honey up to that temperature can zap most of the benefits; but I prefer honey to sugar. I wanted to share a sugar free candy making recipe.
They look delicious! It looks like your kids agree.
I’m glad you didn’t have to put 4 cups of honey down the drain! That would be a tough decision. These sound, and look, delicious!
I think the honeybees would have attacked if I would have thrown all that precious gold down the drain!
what a clever mama you are! I love this idea!
Uche UCH, Ahchoo……,
sorry I’m a bit cold.
But these sweets will help
Thanks xo
Bless you Patricia!
I’m sure it is fun to make candys!!
I love her colourful fingers!
Wow Lisa, you rock!! This is too awesome
I’m so going to try this recipe out. I can’t wait-Thanks for sharing it
Please come back and tell me how it goes! Curious to hear how quickly the temp. gets to 300.
I’ve been wanting to try cough drops, too! I haven’t looked closely at my recipes, yet, though.
I’ll put it on the list!
I love horehound, too. mmmm.
Your herbal honey medicines would be perfect for this recipe Stephanie.
These look so good! And so much healthier than the junk in the stores.
thank you for sharing your how-to! i really appreciate it!
nicola
http://whichname.blogspot.com
What a cool & useful project! I’ve gotta earmark this for future reference. Thanks for sharing
they look so amazing, and the picture of the dried herbs is so beautiful. Thank you for the recipe and all the good tips! xo Kyndale
Yummy! Great idea. Another one to add to my list of things to try.
Thanks.
Do you have a good resource for ordering your elderberries? I haven’t been able to find a place “I like.”
I totally trust Mountain Rose Herbs. Here’s the link directly to the elderberries:
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/bulkherb/e.html
Making elderberry syrup?
Thanks for the info. Yes, it’s for elderberry syrup. We are almost through the little bit we have. I want to grow elderberries next year, but given the ginormous squirrel population in our backyard…ordering might be a better idea.
Oh…and can’t wait to try the candies. I love candy making. xo
I can’t wait to try this. You have such a wealth of wonderfulness here!
Mmmmm, and I bet your house smelled wonderful, too!
Thanks for the recipe and tutorial, it would be fun to give this a try. How long do the candies last in the fridge? I’m thinking that to have them be useful for coughdrops I’d need to make them well before the coughing started.
Do you think they could freeze as well?
Sure you can keep them in the freezer, actually that’s where I keep them. I’m suffering a headache tonight, need to go change frige to freezer. I think they will keep for at least 6 months in the freezer.