Hard Candy — The Neighbors Cooed, the Baby Got None, and I Made the Candy Anyway

Halloween week. I don't do Halloween — never have, not since Evarts where trick-or-treating was walking to three houses in the dark. But Connie decorates and the house looks like someone who celebrates lives here, which is technically true because Connie lives here.

Made pumpkin soup from a sugar pumpkin — not the porch pumpkins, the cooking kind. Halved, seeds saved for roasting, flesh roasted at 400 until soft, scooped and blended with sauteed onion and garlic and sage and chicken stock and cream. Orange and tasting like October in a bowl.

Travis brought Earl Thomas for trick-or-treating, which was absurd because he's six months old and can't eat candy. But Travis put him in a pumpkin outfit — orange fleece with a green stem hat — and carried him door to door and the neighbors cooed and the whole exercise was for the adults. I stood on the porch and watched my son carry my grandson through the neighborhood dressed as a pumpkin and thought: this is what the world is for. Not the candy. The carrying.

Earl Thomas couldn’t eat a single piece of what the neighbors dropped into Travis’s bag that night, and honestly neither of us needed any. But something about watching that baby go door to door in his pumpkin suit — all ceremony, no consumption — made me want to participate in my own way. So after they headed home and Connie’s decorations were still glowing on the porch, I made hard candy. Not for trick-or-treaters. Just because it felt like the kind of thing you do on a night like that — old-fashioned and deliberate and a little ridiculous, like carrying a six-month-old through the neighborhood for candy he can’t eat.

Hard Candy

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 40 pieces

Ingredients

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon flavored extract (cinnamon, peppermint, or anise)
• 1/4 teaspoon food coloring (optional)
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Prepare the pan. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and generously grease it with butter or non-stick spray. Dust lightly with powdered sugar and set aside.
2. Combine and heat. In a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan, combine the granulated sugar, corn syrup, and water over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.
3. Cook to hard crack. Bring the mixture to a boil without stirring. Continue cooking until the thermometer reads 300—310°F (hard crack stage), about 20—25 minutes. Watch carefully — it can darken quickly at the end.
4. Add flavoring. Remove from heat immediately. Working quickly and carefully (the syrup is extremely hot), stir in the flavored extract and food coloring if using. The mixture may sputter slightly.
5. Pour and cool. Pour the hot candy onto the prepared baking sheet in a thin, even layer. Allow to cool completely at room temperature, about 30 minutes.
6. Break and dust. Once fully hardened, break the candy sheet into irregular pieces with a mallet or the back of a spoon. Toss pieces in powdered sugar to prevent sticking.
7. Store. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, with layers separated by parchment or wax paper, for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 48 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 13g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 4mg