Sweet chemistry

Put the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cream of tartar in the saucepan and stir over medium heat. Use a wooden spoon, as it won't get hot the way a metal one will. (Note: While the solution is heating, avoid sudden temperature changes or introducing foreign particles. These can cause the solution to crystallize early and become grainy.)

Keep stirring until all of the sugar crystals dissolve. If you see sugar crystals on the sides of the pan, dampen a pastry brush with hot water and brush the crystals down into the solution. Doing both these things will help prevent crystallization. And be careful: The solution will get very hot.

As soon as the solution starts to boil, stop stirring.

Ask an adult to heat the candy thermometer under hot water and then attach it to the side of the pan. Don't let the tip of the thermometer touch the sides or bottom of the pan. This could affect its accuracy - or even break the thermometer.

Keep an eye on the temperature. When it hits 300 degrees F., an adult must remove the pan from the heat immediately.

Now have an adult help you do the cold-water candy test to confirm that the solution has reached the hard-crack stage. While you watch the solution turn to brittle threads in your water glass, let the solution cool to 275 degrees F. Add flavor and a few drops of food coloring.

Have an adult prepare the actual lollipops. If you aren't using a mold, the adult should carefully pour a little of the candy solution onto the papered cookie sheet, enough to make a two-inch puddle of syrup. Now you can put in the lollipop stick. Give the stick a little twist to make sure it's coated with the candy solution. Repeat nine more times. (Note: lollipops made without a mold won't be perfectly round.)

If you have a mold, have an adult pour the solution into the prepared mold.

The lollipops now have to cool - a perfect time to start cleaning up!

After about 10 to 15 minutes, your lollipops will be ready to wrap. Cover each with a sandwich bag or a piece of cellophane and tie it closed with a piece of ribbon or yarn.

Making candy is a delicious project, but it can also be pretty messy. Here are some tips to sweeten your cleanup:

• Before you start making candy, cover your entire working surface (even the floor) with waxed paper, parchment paper, or newspaper. That way, sticky drips will fall on disposable coverings and not on surfaces that need cleaning.

• After you've poured out your candy solution, let the saucepan cool off on an unused stove burner. Putting a hot pan on the countertop may scorch the countertop, making cleanup tougher.

• Never pour hot leftover candy solution down the drain, as it may cool and harden in the pipes, clogging them. Instead, pour the solution into a used soup can or other container. When it has cooled, put the can in the trash.

• When your pot has cooled, you can clean off the sticky residue inside it much more easily if you redissolve it. To do this, have a grownup fill the dirty pot two-thirds full of water and bring it to a boil.

Sugar once had a starring role in Hollywood movies. In old-time Westerns, bad guys being thrown through the windows of saloons were actually being tossed through panes of sugar. Sugar was dissolved in boiling water to make a syrup, which was then poured into large flat pans to cool. The resulting sheets of "candy glass" would shatter realistically into jagged pieces, but the sugar shards posed little threat to actors or stuntmen. Today, the "glass" that breaks onscreen is made of special thin plastics and paraffin wax. (The sound of breaking glass is added later.)

Source: Carnegie Magazine Online, Nov.-Dec. 1997

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