I have been wanting to make these for awhile and finally had the chance.
These honey lollipops are a lovely treat for little ones that might be feeling under the weather. Honey is so soothing for sore throats and has so many other benefits- natural energy boost, relief for allergies, memory booster and much, much more…
Of course most of those benefits will come from raw honey and this is cooked honey but still, as far as treats go this is a great option. These little lollipops are great for children that might be feeling ill or wrap these up and gift them to adults too. These lollipops are wonderful stirred into hot water or hot tea.
To make these little lollipops is really simple. Just heat the honey with a splash of water and sugar (or skip the sugar), pop into a lollipop mold, let cool and that is it!
You can add in some citrus zest if you like or maybe cinnamon- just depending on the flavor of honey you purchase. I found the cinnamon a little too strong with the honey I used but orange zest was absolutely perfect.
My 8 year old loves honey so she really doesn’t need any added sugar (or very little added sugar). My older daughter does not like honey as much so she prefers more sugar and extra citrus zest. I have seen some recipes with up to a cup of sugar in these lollipops so really it is totally up to you to add as much as you like.
Here is the quick recipe to make these yourself:
- ⅓ cup honey
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
- zest of lemon or orange or pinch of cinnamon (optional)
- Add all ingredients to a saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes or until it hits about 275 degrees on a candy thermometer.
- You want the temperature to reach about 300 degrees but I find the honey tends to burn unless I pull it off a little early.
- Quickly remove from heat- note these will go from perfectly done to burned in seconds so be prepared to move fast.
- Pour into lollipop molds or carefully pour into small circles on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- *These cool fast and are hard to work with once cooled so move quickly*
- Once poured into mold, add a lollipop stick and allow to cool completely - at least 1 hour- before popping out of the mold.
These are extremely easy to make but you do want to be all set to put them together as you need to move very fast to get the hot honey into the molds before it starts to harden.
These will harden quickly and I found the easiest way to get them out of the mold is to pop the mold from the bottom. Do not try to yank the stick of the lollipop up or it will break.
Once they are out of the mold, put them in a little party bag and tie with a ribbon for a gift or pop into a Tupperware container for your own use. Done! This made about 6 lollipops for me.
I found a cute smiley face lollipop mold at the craft store but you can also Click here to take a look
I got my lollipop sticks from the craft store but click here to take a look online
You can use regular party bags but these pretzel treat bags are perfect
Tried these…. They never set…..
Hi Rebecca,
Most likely you are not getting the honey to the right temperature. They should hit about 300 degrees. Mine set within a few minutes so my guess is that could be the problem. Do you have a candy thermometer?
Looking to make these with some local and manuka honey to get ready for cold season. Could you add strawberry puree to the heated honey possibly? ever try that? How do you think the nutrients drop from raw honey to heated? TIA
I purchase naturally flavored blueberry honey and naturally flavored strawberry honey and I’m getting ready to try these for my grand baby who is very sick right now. She won’t touch the plain honey pops so pray this works. I’ll let you know. Thanks for the recipe.
Oh I hope she gets better soon Susan 🙁 The flavored honey sounds wonderful!
Can you double or triple the batch? Or is it best to only do 1/3 cup of honey at a time?
Hello! I tried using several recipes today for honey lollipops and all were similar to yours (I love your high ratio of honey…just what I was looking for); however, each time my lollipops tasted burned. I make sure not to exceed the 300 degree limit (in fact, I usually stop at 297 degrees) but it’s not helping. It starts smelling burned by 240 degrees. I frequently stir it while it heats up. I’ve tried adding the honey in the beginning and adding it after the sugar and water heat up. No change. Any insight would be most helpful. THANK YOU!
-Shelly
Urg Shelly, I do know ovens vary a lot and I bet there is some variance in what pan we use, the brand of thermometer etc… Have you tried removing from heat at 240 and see if they still set? I know it stinks to experiment with an expensive ingredient so hopefully it works.
Wonderful and I will be making these for my grandchildren!