Soft candies are low boiled candies. It has sugar of which no more than 5% of other ingredients have been added. Soft candies have been enjoyed for many years now. It has become popular in the mid-1800's in the US and it is now being enjoyed in other countries all over the world. So, what are some of the most popular types of soft candies being enjoyed by folks of all ages? Let's find out what they are and what they are made of:

Cotton Candy

A carnival or an amusement park is not complete without a cotton candy being sold. It is pure sugar spun that has been melted with a small amount of coloring. The old fashion way to make cotton candy is to melt sugar in a pan and use a fork to make strings of sugar. When the sugar strings dry, they will look like fluffy cotton. It has been called cotton candy in the US, but some countries still call it Fairy Floss or sugar spun.

MARSHMALLOWS

One of the most popular soft candies are marshmallows. It is made by whipping air into a mixture of sugar, corn syrup, egg whites, gelatin, flavorings and food coloring. The popular form is white and covered with powdered sugar. It is also available in cream form for topping or cooking,

SOFT NOUGAT

Soft nougat is one variety of nougat candies. It is a bit chewy and initially crunchy but dissolves as you chew it. It is made of egg whites and gelatin whipped into boiled sugar syrup. Vegetable fat is added to give chewiness. Different nuts are added. Soft nougats are popular filling for some chocolate bars.

PRALINE

Another popular soft candy is pralines. It is usually made from ground nuts and sugar syrup. The most common nuts used, especially in France, are almonds and hazelnuts. In the US, the most popular nut is pecans with cream added. The praline became a sugary, creamy, pecan-laden candy. Pralines are said to be a creation of a cook at Marshal du Plessis-Praslin's Chateau of Vaux-le Vicomte and named after Praslin, a sugar industrialist.

MARZIPAN

Marzipan is a soft, doughy, sweetened almond based streuartikel paste. It is also flavored with rosewater. Its main ingredients are ground almonds or almond paste, egg whites and sugar often molded to different decorative shapes and sizes. It is also used as cake filling or icing. There are still many popular soft candies available from your candy store. Grab a bag today and enjoy your sweet treats!

Rock candy is a simple sugar candy made of large sugar crystals. The process takes up to a week to make rock candy. It is usually made by supersaturated solution of sugar and water to crystallize on a string or a mold. Color can also be added to produce colored candy. Just anyone loves candy and it is handy to always have some in your home in case some guests come to visit. Here's a simple guideline in making rock candy.

To begin, you need the following tools to make rock candy:

• Clean glass jars to store candies
• Large mixing bowl
• Clean cotton string
• Medium metal saucepan
• Table spoon for stirring
• Measuring cups
• Popsicle sticks or wooden skewers

The ingredients needed are:

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• Food coloring
• Flavoring

Steps to make rock candy:

1. Cut a string long enough to tie around the popsicle stick or wooden skewer and hang into the jar but make sure it does not touch the bottom or sides. Cut it on the end if it is still too long. Saturate the end of the string with the sugar solution and let it dry for a few minutes.

2. Boil 1 cup water in the saucepan.

3. Add the sugar slowly by stirring it constantly until it dissolves. You can add a little corn syrup for flavor. Sugar solution is very hot and children will need adult supervision.

4. For clear rock candy, use the sugar solution. For colored crystals, add a drop or more of food coloring and stir well.

5. Pour sugar water into the jar. Make sure you do not pour the undissolved sugar into the jar. Discard undissolved sugar.
Cover the jar with paper towel and leave it aside for a couple of days for chunks of crystals to form. Crystals will grow in 2 to 4 hours up to a couple of days.

6. On the day that your candy has formed, remove it from the jar by pulling the string and break it into small pieces.

7. You may replace the string for popsicle stick or lollipop stick to make lollipop candy.

Now that you have your finished product, the long wait is worth your while. Rock candies are truly a delight to offer to your house guests. Not only that, rock candy is a sweet colorful treat and can also be a unique gift. For children, they can get a good cooking (and science!) lesson from it. So have fun and enjoy as you make rock candy.

After you get your feet wet making candy at home, I bet you'll find candy lollipop molds will be a central part of your "tool kit." Lollipops are a standard in the candy arena, enjoyed by everyone... including adults. These days, there are lots of different candy lollipop molds to choose from, featuring a wide array of shapes and sizes. And far from just popping out lollipops at random, with your growing collection of candy lollipop molds, soon you'll be creating specific treats for each season or holiday!

Keep in mind that there are a number of different types of candy lollipop molds. You've surely come across the flat molds. These are the molds that make the heart-shaped suckers for February 14th, and Christmas trees too. There are pumpkin molds for Halloween to boot. The flat molds are easily available at most hobby shops and online merchants of craft supplies. Just do some poking around and you'll find you can locate a mold for any occasion.

Candy lollipop molds come in a variety of materials. You can select from plastic, resin or rubber. Any of them are pretty easy to work with and a good number of them come with designs formed into them. Having a large set allows you to make a good number of suckers at once. It's really as easy as pouring your mixture into the molds, allowing it to set up, and then must popping them out once they've hardened. Sometimes you just have to apply a little bit of pressure on the back of the mold. Once you've freed the sucker from the candy lollipop mold, you'll find that you know have a nice design on the other side!

Once you've gotten the hang of the flat molds with impressions for designs, you can graduate to the three-dimensional candy lollipop molds. These are nice because they have quite a bit more texture and "depth" than the standard flat mold. These will take a bit more practice and skill to get used to, simply because they are two distinct pieces. One piece represents the front of the mold. The other, of course, is the back.

The three-dimensional candy lollipop molds really are that difficult to work with, however. What you do is pour your mixture into the first side, getting it rather close to the top. You then just patiently allow it to harden. You pour into the other side, keeping it about ¼ inch from the top of the mold. Allow it to nearly completely harden. After the first side is about entirely hardened, you pop streuartikel it out and put it on top of the remaining side. Next, just let this combination sit there and harden together as one unit.

Keep in mind that you could find some different types of three-dimensional molds. At first you may not recognize them, because they appear to be one unit. What it is is that some of the newer and fancier three-dimensional candy lollipop molds are hinged. So, there are still two pieces, but they are just connected together. They are designed to fold into each other. So, with these you don't take the candy out until it has completely hardened as one unit.

Our discussion of candy lollipop molds wouldn't be complete without discussing the hollow molds. Actually, there is some debate over how relevant this is, but I want to at least mention it. See, it's not actually one of the candy lollipop molds, but rather what you use when you want to have candy filled with some delectable treat. Say you want to have peanut butter-filled chocolates. Then you would use a hollow mold. To be thorough, you can use these hollow molds with hard candy; however, they are generally used with chocolate.

Using a hollow molds is pretty straight-forward. First you melt your chocolate and use a small brush to cover each side of the mold. It's best to now put the mold in the refrigerator to let the layer of chocolate harden. Sometimes you'll need to repeat this step so you get a sufficiently thick layer of chocolate. What you really want to do is be able to place the candy up to a light source and not have it shine through the layer of chocolate. If you don't see light, then your layer is thick enough. Once you're ready, just insert the filling of choice and then cover the top with chocolate. After than hardens, you're ready to snap it out of the mold and eat away

Having knowledge about candy making allows you to make many different kinds of candies at home that you, your family members, and visitors can enjoy eating. There are actually three types of candies that can be made; hard candies, soft candies, and rock candies. Amongst those three, the easiest to make are rock candies. But, the most common that you can find being sold almost anywhere are known as hard candies. Examples of these types of candies are lollipops. And, if you want to make your own lollipops at home, then you need to have different kinds of hard candy lollipop molds that you can use in creating lollipops with different sizes, shapes, and flavors.

Aside from hard candy lollipop molds, you also need to purchase candy making supplies, ingredients, and different recipes. The best thing about knowing how to make your own candies and lollipops at home is that you can experiment on what you want to have for your candies. With the use of different kinds of hard candy lollipop molds, you can create lollipops with shapes and figures of the superhero that your kids love. For sure, your kids will love you more and will ask you to let them help you the next time you plan to make candies.

Another advantage of having many different kinds of hard candy lollipop molds is that you can make specialized lollipops for specific events and occasions. For instance, if it is Christmas season, you can make lollipops with shapes of a Christmas tree, a star, candy cane, and other figures that are linked with holiday seasons. But, before you go on creating different kinds of lollipops, you should first prepare everything that you need in order to make the process easier. Be sure to have all the molds you need to be prepared so that the process will go smoothly and without hassles.

When buying hard candy lollipop molds, there are also a few things that you should keep in mind. First of all, you need to have knowledge about the different materials that different kinds of molds are made of. Some molds may be made of plastic, while some may be made of metal or aluminum. It would also be best to purchase all your supplies and equipments from reputable wholesalers as you can save a lot of money this way.