Recipe - Mom’s Red Hots
December 30th, 2007
I remember when my mom got her first advanced microwave, when I was a kid. It had a meat and candy thermometer that allowed us to make some fun things. One recipe we used to make often during the holidays were these red hots. While you don’t have to use a microwave, it sure was easy with the temperature probe. Be careful though, the red hots stick to you and really can make a bad burn.
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup water
- Dash salt
- 2 cups sugar
- Red food coloring
- 1/2 teaspoon oil of cinnamon (artificial)
Cook until 300 degrees.
Add red food coloring and 1/2 teaspoon oil of cinnamon.
Pour in square pan.
When film forms, start cutting with spatula starting outside in.
March 8th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Okay - the grandkids need to hear this story from me - you guys always embellish my cooking errors!
I got this recipe from a cookbook that I purchased from Ewing Lane Elementary - they were selling it as a fund raiser. Daniel, that is the same school where you are going now - they just made it a lot bigger and renamed it.
In that cook book, this recipe just said 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. So, when I got to the part where I was supposed to add it, I added cinnamon. I had already decided that the red food coloring was just for show and didn’t put that in.
I kept cooling it off and tasting it - couldn’t figure out why it didn’t taste like red hots. I kept adding cinnamon and this mixture just got browner and browner. I must have added a good half of a cup before I decided that this just wasn’t going to work. We threw this all away - it wasn’t good at all.
Honestly, I can’t remember how I found out that it meant ‘cinnamon oil’ - I think it was grandpa who told me, but, I did feel kind of dumb.
After using cinnamon oil for a while, I found some that was ‘natural’ and decided that I would try that. It doesn’t work. You have to use the artificial stuff to get the flavor.
I have looked this recipe up on the internet - there are several to choose from - it seems that those recipes call for more corn syrup - and no water.
I think this recipe with the water is closest to the famous Schimpf’s Candy Store recipe. There is a difference - Schimpf’s adds the cinnamon oil after the mixture has been poured out on the table to be pressed in the candy molds - and sometimes it doesn’t get mixed in as well as it would if they added it at the end of cooking. Sometimes you get a downright hot spot when you are eating their red hots.
We used to make these for all of the teachers - put them in glass jars with ribbons - they looked nice. I wonder why we never made green ones? It would be neat to have red and green ones for Christmas.
You could have blue ones if your were a UK fan, orange if you were a Tennessee fan - why do they have to be red?
Adventure in the kitchen……