How To: Chocolate Lollipops

Butter! The secret is butter! The delightful shatter, that outrageous flavor, a special something you can't quite put a finger on - it's butter!

Butter makes these lollipops worth making, worth eating, and worth dreaming about. A little lemon juice is added to help the fat of the butter work into the sugar, a little sea salt is there for flavor. And don't skimp on the cocoa powder...the richer the better for these beauties!

 

Lollipop tips:
1. If you want your lollipops to be perfectly round, you'll need molds. They're lightweight plastic, not expensive, and are very reusable. I like lollipops that are 1.5" round, but if you're into giant lollipops or tiny lollipops or lollipops shaped like bunnies, the world of lollipop molds is your oyster. 

2. If you want to skip the molds, you can make lollipops using a non-stick baking mat like a Silpat. You pour the candy directly onto lollipop sticks that you've arranged on the mats. Once cool, the lollipops lift right off!

3. You must wrap your lollipops, once cool, in cellophane. Otherwise they'll start to get droopy (because they absorb moisture from their surroundings). I like to secure the cellophane with twist-ties (and I don't know if you've seen how cute twist-ties are these days, but let me just say: SO CUTE). 

Equipment:
Lollipop molds
Non-stick mat
Digital thermometer
Candy funnel or spouted measuring cup
Lollipop sticks
Cellophane for wrapping
Twist-ties

Chocolate Lollipops

Makes 60-ish 1.5" lollipops

156 g glucose
400 g granulated sugar
60 g brewed coffee
10 g lemon juice or white vinegar
60 g butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
20 g cocoa powder
7 g kosher salt

Prepare your mold or non-stick mat with lollipop sticks.

Weigh the glucose, sugar, brewed coffee, and lemon juice into a heavy-bottomed pot and set the pot over medium high heat. 

Bring the contents of the pot to a boil. 

Once boiling, swirl the pot to make sure the boil is strong enough that it won’t vanish, then add the butter steadily but gradually, giving the pot a good swirl (don't stir with a spoon or whisk with a whisk! Just swirl the pot on the stovetop!) after all of the butter is added. 

Allow the candy to continue cooking, swirling (not stirring!) occasionally to distribute the heat and avoid hot spots.

Test the syrup for temperature and as soon as it reaches 305° remove it from the heat. 

Give the candy syrup a good stir (now you can stir!) then add the cocoa powder and kosher salt. 

Stir the contents of the pot together very well until the candy no longer looks foamy and any active bubbling has stopped. 

Using great care, pour the syrup into a candy funnel (or glass measuring cup with a spout) and funnel the candy into a lollipop mold (or onto sticks placed on a non-stick mat). Err on the side of too little syrup into each mold cavity rather than too much. You can always add more syrup, but you cannot take it away. If you're pouring candy onto sticks on a non-stick mat, aim for the candy to be approximately 1 1/2" round. 

Allow the lollipops to cool completely before wrapping in cellophane.