Basic Herb Candy Recipe

Expert Linda Parker submitted this recipe a few years back, just in time for the cold and flu season, and visitors have been raving about it ever since!

Linda used horehound to make the herbal tea (which she grows in her Salt Lake City back garden). Horehound is a prescribed natural remedy for colds so it’s use is perfect in a cough drop.

Be warned that this recipe makes a LOT – you may want to halve or even quarter the ingredients for a smaller family.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups strong herb tea
• 3 ½ pounds sugar (about 8 cups) Linda uses brown sugar for the horehound drops, but white sugar would probably be better for a more delicate-tasting tea.

Method:

• Mix sugar and tea in a large saucepan (use one a lot bigger than you think you’ll need – the mixture foams up and could easily overflow while cooking if you don’t have a lot of head space).
• Boil hard while stirring until the mixture reaches 292 degrees (be sure to make adjustments for altitude*.)
• Carefully pour the hot mixture onto a large, shallow, buttered cookie sheet and let cool. Before the taffy cools and hardens completely, cut it into bite sized pieces. You could also pull it like regular taffy, if you want a softer, chewier candy.

*Altitude adjustment*

Using a candy thermometer, see what temperature water boils at your altitude.

Example: At sea level water boils at 212 degrees. At my altitude, water boils at about 188 degrees. So I have to subtract 188 from 212 (boiling point at sea level, which is what almost all recipes use), the result is 24 degrees. Therefore as long as I live here I always need to subtract 24 from the temperature in most recipes, (which in this case is 268 degrees – 292 minus 24).