Although homemade candy canes require time and energy, everyone’s amazement and delight—including your own—will make the endeavor worthwhile. Candy canes from scratch look just as fun and festive as store-bought ones. They’ll have a beautiful glossy sheen, twisting, bright stripes, and that traditional minty taste.
Like most hard sweets, candy canes call for a few basic ingredients: sugar, water, corn syrup, along with some peppermint extract for flavor and food coloring. The challenge lies in boiling the sugar, pulling the candy until it’s stiff but pliable, and finally, forming it into the right shapes. Because molten sugar requires careful attention, read the whole recipe thoroughly and set up your workstation before you embark on this project. It’s wise to invest in a candy thermometer as well as heat resistant plastic gloves since burning your fingers is a real danger. However, as long as you use the right equipment and exercise caution, you should not have trouble with this foolproof recipe; in fact, it should be fun.
Tips for Making Candy Cane
- Calibrate your thermometer – Calibrate your clip-on candy thermometer before you begin this recipe. The thermometer will tell you when to take the sugar syrup off the stove; if yours is faulty or incorrectly calibrated, you may undercook or overcook the syrup.
- Safety first! – Protect your hands from the hot candy and dye by investing in heat-resistant gloves.
- How to fix your candy cane – If the candy cracks or hardens, return it to the warm oven for a few minutes. Any longer and the candy will lose its shape. At room temperature, your candy canes should be as hard as the store-bought variety.
What You’ll Need to Make This Candy Canes Recipe
“The long list of steps seems intimidating but as long as you have a pair of heat-resistant gloves this recipe’s execution is surprisingly simple! If you’re having trouble finding any white food coloring, try heading to a crafts store rather than a normal supermarket.” —Noah Velush-Rogers
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Cooking spray, for baking sheets
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3 cups granulated sugar
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1 cup light corn syrup
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1/2 cup water, divided
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1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
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1 teaspoon red gel food coloring, more as needed
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1 teaspoon white gel food coloring, optional
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Gather the ingredients.
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Spray 2 rimmed baking sheets with cooking spray and set aside. Position a rack in the upper and lower third of the oven and heat to 200 F.
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Combine 3 cups granulated sugar, 1 cup light corn syrup, and 1/4 cup of water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir with a silicone spatula until the sugar dissolves.
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Pour the remaining 1/4 cup water into a small bowl and use it to wet a pastry brush.
Use the wet brush to wash any sugar crystals off the side of the pan. Do not stir syrup.
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When syrup comes to a boil, insert a candy thermometer and continue to cook, without stirring, until thermometer registers 285 F. At this point, the candy will have reached the soft-crack stage.
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Remove from heat. Let bubbles subside, then stir 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract.
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Pour about half of the syrup onto one prepared baking sheet and place it in the oven.
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Stir 1 teaspoon red food coloring into remaining syrup. If necessary, add more coloring to achieve a vibrant shade of red.
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Pour candy onto the remaining baking sheet and allow it to sit briefly until it forms a “skin.”
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Spray a bench scraper or metal spatula with cooking spray, and use the tool to “knead” the candy. Flatten the candy, then fold it back over itself. Repeat this process until the candy is significantly cooler, 1 to 2 minutes.
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Using heat-resistant gloves, stretch the candy into a long rope, then fold rope in half and twist candy until it melts back into itself.
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Repeat this process until the candy takes on an opaque color and a satiny finish, 2 to 3 minutes. At this point, the candy will be warm—you should have some trouble pulling and folding it.
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Stretch candy into a rope, about 2 inches in diameter, then return it to oven, where it will stay warm and pliable.
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Remove the other baking sheet from the oven. Knead 1 teaspoon white food coloring into the candy, if using.
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Pull and fold the candy in the same fashion as the red batch until it becomes opaque, glossy, and difficult to pull. Stretch it into a second log, about 2 inches in diameter.
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Remove red candy from oven. Cut a 2-inch segment from the white log and another 2-inch segment from the red log. Put the remaining candy back in oven.
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Squeeze 2 segments together until they form a two-toned log. Stretch candy again. This step will determine the thickness of your candy canes—you can make them thinner (with a 1/4-inch diameter) or thicker (with a 1/2-inch diameter).
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When you’re happy with the candy’s width, twist rope to form those distinctive candy stripes.
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Oil or use cooking spray on a pair of cooking shears and cut candy into smaller pieces. Again, you can choose to make long or short candy canes. A 7-inch piece of candy will yield a medium-sized candy cane.
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Immediately form the hook at the top of the cane and place it on a clean surface to firm up at room temperature.
Cut off another segment from each log, return the remaining logs to the oven, and repeat the twisting and stretching process until you have used all the candy.
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How to Store Candy Canes
Be sure to wrap them in plastic wrap or cellophane to preserve their shelf life.
Feeling Adventurous? Try This:
Candy canes are fun to eat and there are plenty of creative ways to use them in other recipes around the holidays.
- Crush them – Use crushed candy canes in peppermint bark.
- Garnish them – Make chocolate truffles and sprinkle them over the truffles like snow.
- Make fun popcorn – Melt white chocolate, crush up candy canes, and combine both with popcorn for a fun holiday treat.
| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 184 | Calories |
| 0g | Fat |
| 48g | Carbs |
| 0g | Protein |
×
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings: 12 to 18 |
|
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 184 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| 0g | 0% |
| Saturated Fat 0g | 0% |
| 0mg | 0% |
| 12mg | 1% |
| 48g | 17% |
| Dietary Fiber 0g | 0% |
| Total Sugars 48g | |
| 0g | |
| Vitamin C 0mg | 0% |
| Calcium 3mg | 0% |
| Iron 0mg | 0% |
| Potassium 1mg | 0% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
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