Honey Candy

I started a new schedule at work.  I work nine hours a day and have every other Friday off.  On the Fridays I work, I get to leave an hour early.  Today was my early day.  It felt like such a treat.

It should not have felt like a treat because I worked eight hours.  That is a full day of work in my book. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to next Friday.  

This is the last recipe I made at home.  My parents recently purchased two beehives.  When I was home, we strained pints of honey.  I was returned from home with two bears full of honey.  

My mother suggested we make honey candy.  She remembers her father making it when she was a child.  I found a recipe online at Six Sisters' Stuff.  It only has three ingredients, but it takes work.  You have to knead the candy forever.  

The ingredients are 2 cups honey, 1 cup cream, and 1 cup sugar.  We also need butter for our hands and the sheet pan.

We put the sugar, cream, and honey into a sauce pan.

I put the pan over medium heat and stirred until everything was combined.  

We used a candy thermometer.  We did not let the tip of the thermometer touch the bottom of the pan.  The temperature needs to reach 250 to 266 degrees.  

This takes a long time.  Expect it to boil and brown for an hour.  My mother suggested that we not stir the sugar because that can cause crystallization.  

The hot candy lava get darker and darker.  It almost looks burnt, but it tasted fine.

Once the temperature reached 250 to 266 degrees, we poured the sugar onto a well buttered sheet pan to cool.

Another recipe we read suggested pulling the sugar from the edge of the pan into the center so that it cools evenly.

The real work begins when it is cool enough to touch.

You need to twist and knead the candy until it cools, become a lighter carmel color, and is almost too hard to manipulate.  This took forever.  Remember to butter your hands!  It is sticky until it cools.

After it was cool, we rolled the candy into thin strips.  We let it continue to harden.

After about 10 minutes we cut the candy into bit size pieces.  We then rolled them up in little squares of wax paper.  There are many tedious steps to this candy.

Despite the work this candy was delicious.  If you enjoy the taste of honey, you won't be able to stop eating these.  They remind me of bit-o-honeys.

They are sweet and creamy.  The texture isn't overly sticky either.  The flavor is a combination of honey and caramel.

This recipe makes a mountain, so you will have enough to share.