Homemade Candy Corn

Candy corn. It's a love it or hate it kind of candy. My mom loves it. Eric could eat it by the truck load. One small handful and I'm good until next year. But I have friends who venomously hate this autumn candy, who can go on a ten minute rant about how much they hate this candy. However, this homemade candy might just change their minds. They taste like candy corn, but like a better vanilla-y, buttery version. Plus, there's a great versatility to these candies. Swap out the vanilla extract for peppermint extract, change the colors, and you have candy corn for Christmas.

I found this recipe on a few different websites, but here's the one I used with a few minor changes.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup non-fat milk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Red food coloring
Yellow food coloring

Directions:
In a large bowl, sift powdered sugar, milk powder, and salt. (Sifting is very important) Set aside.

Over high heat bring corn syrup, granulated sugar, butter, and vanilla extract to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When the mixture just begins to boil, reduce heat to medium-high. Stirring frequently, bring the mixture to 228 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove pan from heat.

Gradually stir in the sugar mixture until it's completely incorporated. Now I'm going to be honest with you, doing this with a spatula wasn't easy. I finally got to the point to where I kneaded the rest of the sugar mixture into the dough (for lack of a better word). If you decided to do this, be very careful. The dough is still quite hot and can burn you. I only handled it for maybe 10-15 seconds at a time.

Once the sugar mixture is completely incorporated, place the dough on a piece of wax paper for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is cool enough to handle.

I halved the recipe so you'd half twice as much dough if you prepare the entire recipe.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces and place each in its own bowl. Add about 3 drops of yellow food coloring to one of the bowls and knead the color into the dough. If you're worried about staining your hands, use gloves, but the food coloring washed right off my hands. Add about 2 drops of yellow food coloring and 2 drops of red food coloring to the second bowl and knead it into the dough to make orange dough. Leave the third bowl uncolored.

Roll out a large piece of wax paper over your work area. If you want, you can roll three ridiculously long, thin ropes of dough (one in each color) or you can do what I did and work in batches. If working in batches, make sure to cover any unused dough with plastic wrap or else it will dry out. Line the ropes up so they form a long rectangle with white on top, yellow in the middle, and orange on the bottom. Press the ropes together and flatten them a little. Using a knife, cut the rope into little triangles. Half of your pieces will look like normal candy corn (white-yellow-orange) and the other half with look like inverted candy corns (orange-yellow-white). I won't lie, this is a time consuming process, but the end result is so cute and delicious, it's worth the effort.

Aren't  they cute?

Store the candy corn in an airtight container, making sure to separate the layers with waxed paper. Keep container at room temperature.

The original recipe says that this makes 100 pieces. However, that all depends on how thin you roll your ropes. With each batch my candy corns kept getting bigger and bigger.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Also Check These Fall Recipes:  
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frosting
Cheese Tortellini in a Pumpkin Sauce
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip
Mini Pumpkin Pies
Pumpkin Caramels
Pumpkin-Black Bean Stew with Spicy Sausage
Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Brownies