A couple of weeks ago I made lemon glaze to go on my cinnamon rolls. After we finished off the rolls, there was some glaze left that had dripped onto the plate. It was like little sweet / tart pieces of candy. I thought to myself,
“You know what, Self? I’ll bet you could make a whole batch of candy like that and skip the cinnamon rolls altogether.”But I like cinnamon rolls.
“Dood! Candy!”
(Sometimes my internal monologue turns into a dialogue. And then an argument.)
Ingredients
1 cup powdered sugar
juice of 1 small lemon
Directions
Until I make this again and measure how much lemon juice I got, you’ll have to wing it a little bit. Don’t worry, it’s hard to screw up so bad you can’t recover. You want to use the least amount of juice it takes to dissolve the sugar. The hotter the sugar gets the less juice you’ll need, so it’s not an exact science anyway. (Unless you work in a climate-controlled factory. In which case what are you doing reading this?)
Squeeze the juice into a small pan, being sure to keep the seeds out. Add the sugar and stir.
Stir over medium-low heat until smooth. You don’t want to caramelize the sugar, just melt it. Lift out the whisk, fork. or whatever you’re stirring with and see if the sugar starts to set up or if it all runs off. If it just runs off, add more sugar and stir some more.
You can get away with adding more sugar a little at a time and it will keep melting. But the more sugar you add without adding more liquid, the faster it will solidify when you remove it from heat. Be prepared to work fast once it’s ready. You can see in this next picture that the sugar is solidifying on the inside of the pan.
When you think you’re ready to start, take the pan off the heat and line a baking sheet with wax paper.
Using a spoon, scoop the sugar out and make quarter-size dots on the wax paper.
Here, like this.
(If you don’t see the video above, come see it on the blog.)
I ran out of pan before I ran out of sugar, so I put a second layer on some of the larger dots.
Put the pan in the freezer overnight. Then lift the pieces up off the paper by pushing from underneath.
And that’s it.
Oh, wait … what are they good for. Well, they’re a great little snack all by themselves. But if you like lemon in your tea, put these out instead of sugar cubes. I’m a guy, so of course I just handle them by hand. Girls seem to like spoons.
Add some biscuits and have a party.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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9 Comments
Those. look. so. good.
I love anything lemon, and I love sugar. You’ll feel sorry for me after I eat the whole batch and get a sugar headache, right?
(So, storage is just keeping them in the freezer and use as needed?)
Amy, this batch had to stay in the freezer for two days to dry out a little. (That’s why I didn’t have anything to post since Monday.) I’ve had them in the fridge since then, and they’re keeping just fine. Don’t set the dish out on top of the stove while you heat water for tea or they’ll get soft.
I never even thought of them for tea, but I bet that would be really, really good. Lemon in tea is great, especially in summer (although don’t make the mistake of adding milk to your lemon tea…ewww).
What a great idea.
That’s a trippy whisk, man.
I think the candy is a much better idea. I don’t like the thought of lemon on cinnamon rolls. It seems wrong somehow.
where was this recipe about a week or two ago when my morning sickness was at it’s worst? : ) They look super good so maybe I’ll make them anyway even though I’m *finally* starting to feel better!
Mmmm…Candy. Lemon drops saved me during my pregnancies. Also, Lemonheads have always been a personal favorite. I do think these would probably have to live in my freezer due to the Texas humid summers.
Melissa, I don’t normally do lemon in my tea, but wanted to try this out. I’m going to try them out in some iced tea tomorrow.
Kristin, that’s the kids’ hot cocoa whisk. Fits inside a mug. I have no idea where my wife got it, though if I had to guess I’d say Pampered Chef.
Laura, a week ago? It was in my head. Sorry it took so long to get it out.
Stephanie, these aren’t nearly as sour.
i only have lime juice…. maybe i'll try them as lime drops!
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