Happy National Candy Month. In honor, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for…

HONEY SUCKLE SUCKERS
With Variations For Hard Candies & Old Fashioned Candy
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… The Joy Of NOT Cooking – Any More Than You Have To (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov. 1983, p. 199).
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup honey
¼ cup hot water
Dash salt
2 TB margarine
½ tsp orange extract
Wooden popsicle sticks
INSTRUCTIONS:
In 2½-qt saucepan, combine [first five ingredients], bringing mixture to a full, hard boil, stirring constantly. At once, turn heat down so that mixture barely bubbles above a low simmer. Set timer for 12 minutes and let it cook, without stirring, for that long.
Remove from heat. Drop in [the margarine and extract]. Stir thoroughly until margarine has melted and becomes incorporated into candy mixture. At once, drop by spoonful onto Pam-sprayed cookie sheets, on which you have placed flat, wooden popsicle sticks.
Be sure you drop the hot candy in such a way that it covers one end of each stick. Allow to harden at room temperature for about one hour. Wrap and store. Makes 1 dozen.
VARIATIONS:
For HARD CANDIES…
Drop [hot] mixture into Pam-sprayed muffin [or cupcake] wells or thimble sized molds. Allow to harden. Remove from molds. Wrap and store.
For OLD FASHIONED CANDY…
Pour hot candy mixture into a Pam-sprayed jellyroll pan. As soon as you can handle the warm candy (not letting it cool too much), take Pam-sprayed kitchen scissors and snip it into bite-size pieces. Dust [pieces] in powdered sugar and store in glass containers.

See also…
