Alcohol Infused Cough Drops

[LizD518]

I saw a recipe on facebook today for making your own cough drops.  It was a basic hard candy recipe of sugar (and water) with a little honey, lemon, ground ginger & clove - cooked to hard crack, made into droplets on a silpat or parchment and left to cool/harden, then tossed in powdered sugar.  I'd like to doctor it up a bit and could use a little help.  Would it be possible to add a little whiskey into the mix?  Also, if I wanted to steep fresh ginger / clove / etc, what would be the best way to do so?  I was thinking using the water - even though it will all boil off I could steep the flavorings in that before adding it to the sugar.  Finally, what would be the best way to store them so they don't start to soften?  

[pastrygirl]

Alcohol evaporates at 170f (ish, I don't recall exactly but it is well below the boiling point of water) so you might get some flavor but not the booziness. For storage, airtight is key. You may wish to individually wrap the candies in waked paper or cellophane. 

[Deryn]

I drink a hot mixture of honey, lemon and rum if I have a really bad cough. I admit that concoction is a bit hard to carry in one's purse but then again, I don't often feel like travelling long distances if I have a cough bad enough to warrant the use of any kind of 'medication' so it has worked for me so far (and I get enough rum that I no longer much care about the cough! ).

 

I admire your wanting to make your own drops but what is the purpose, in your opinion, of trying to add what would amount to a miniscule amount of real liquor (and as pastrygirl points out, little if anything but the flavour would remain)? Why not just use an 'extract' if the flavour is what you are going for?

Edited April 4, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[pastryani]

I haven't made much hard candy, but could you add the booze to the molten liquid after you reached your desired temp and after it had cooled down to around 150F and then pour into molds?  Or would it greatly affect the consistency?

 

Side question:  does anyone know how are liquid centers in hard candy made?  If someone knows how to do that (please share!), you could make the center part boozy.

[pastrygirl]

3 hours ago, pastryani said:

I haven't made much hard candy, but could you add the booze to the molten liquid after you reached your desired temp and after it had cooled down to around 150F and then pour into molds?  Or would it greatly affect the consistency?

 

Side question:  does anyone know how are liquid centers in hard candy made?  If someone knows how to do that (please share!), you could make the center part boozy.

 

Stirring the sugar after it has cooled might cause it to crystallize.  That's how fudge and fondant work, though I don't have much experience with either.  So I'm not sure but i do know that stirring sugar at a different time or temp can change things drastically.  At 150f, hard crack sugar wold have thickened somewhat.  And since you're not adding pure alcohol, rather liquid that is 20-50% alcohol, the water in the liquor might make the candy sticky.