Dear readers,
I’m so happy to announce that my newest cookbook, Lollipop Love: Sweet Indulgence with Chocolate, Caramel, and Sugar
Lollipop Love explores the classic sweet on a stick – it’s all about cooking sugar. if you’ve been afraid of working with sugar, I hope you’ll see that it’s surprisingly straightforward and not difficult at all. I can now bang out a batch of lollipops in less than half an hour. Once you have the basic lollipop down, it becomes a great canvas for playing with flavors, colors, and decorations.
The cookbook also take a look at caramel and chocolate lollipops – you can never have too many sweet treats on a stick! There’s a fantastic honeycomb toffee lollipop, and a chocolate dipped peppermint cream lollipop that’s like peppermint patty pops. Plus I have some quirky lollipops thrown in, like agave lollipops made with agave nectar or beer lollipops (needed hubby to taste test those!) It was hard to stop at only 40 recipes, since once I got started there were so many other flavor combinations I wanted to try out!
So please, if you or anyone you know would like a little sweetness in their life, take a look at Lollipop Love. You can preorder it on Amazon, and it should start showing up in bookstores very soon.
I’ll be sharing some more recipes and lollipop tidbits over the next few months. In the meantime, to whet your sweet tooth a little more, here is one of my favorite recipes from Lollipop Love – Fleur de Sel, Lavender, and Caramel lollipops. This is my take on salted caramel: a rich, chewy, buttery disc of caramel lightly scented with lavender. It makes me think of spring, which is why I picked this recipe to feature first. You can use any lollipop mold, but I like to keep these smaller, around 1 1/2″ in diameter, since the caramel is so rich. It also makes the perfect size for little kids, as Isabelle demonstrates.
Thanks for all your support and kind words. I’m looking forward to getting very sweet!
- 1 cup (200 g) sugar
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) light corn syrup
- 2 tablespoons water
- Fleur de sel
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender buds
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
- Spray lollipop molds lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Place lollipop sticks in the molds.
- Combine sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a large, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue cooking until the mixture reaches 300°F, hard crack stage. Immediately remove saucepan from heat.
- While sugar is cooking, heat cream, lavender and vanilla in a separate small saucepan just to a boil. Turn heat down to low just to keep cream warm.
- Remove cooking sugar from heat and strain cream into sugar slowly; be careful as the mixture will boil up vigorously and settle back down.
- Add the butter a few pieces at a time, stirring to fully melt and incorporate.
- Divide the mixture among the prepared molds. Let lollipops cool and harden, about 15 minutes, before removing from the molds.
- Store wrapped in cellophane bags twist tied shut, in a cool dry place for up to one month.
Anita Chu, also known as pastrygirl, is a baker, writer, and photographer with a passion for pastry. She trained at Tante Marie's Cooking School and is the author of Field Guide to Cookies, Field Guide to Candy, and Lollipop Love. Anita lives in San Francisco with her husband, baby girl, and rescue cockapoo Snickerdoodle. 
What an amazing cookbook that looks like! I am eager to check it out 🙂 These pops sound terrific, especially with lavender!
Beautiful lollipops! I’ve never tried making any hard candy, but you definitely make it sound doable! And those recipes sound delicious!
Beautiful!
Oh man, these look and sound so good! I’d love to make these for the kids at Easter!
Congrats on your cookbook! The lollipops look beautiful and your little daughter is so adorable!
How exciting! I am definitely interested in your new book.
Two small questions about the delicious-sounding recipe you included here. You didn’t mention when to include the water, but I assume it’s to be boiled with the sugar. Is this right?
Also, could you give us an idea of how much fleur de sel to use? Thanks so much! I need to find a mold and give this a try.
I never would have thought to combine caramel and lavender, but these look gorgeous so I’m sure they taste even better 🙂
Wow! This looks absolutely amazing. I love caramel and sea salt!
Caramel and lavender so lovely together. Congrats the book is almost done! And your little sweetie is so cute!!
Congratulations on the cookbook! I’m looking forward to seeing it in my local bookstore.
Congratulations on your new book, Anita! Your little girl is absolutely adorable, and I’ll bet she was pretty excited to be your taste-tester.
How exciting! Congrats! These lollipops are just beautiful!
What a super fun cookbook and those lollipops! YES YES YES
How exciting, this book sounds like it’s going to be a fun one! I love the sound of these pops – I make lavender caramels that are my favorite, so I know I’d adore these. Congrats!
Oh yummy. This look s amazing i would never have thought to have put both together. But love the idea of it. Thank you for the inspiration.Rosie
x
http://www.rosedogandco.blogspot.com.au
Oh those are so beautiful and delicate looking. I bet they taste like heaven!
What lovely lollipops! I love the addition of lavender.
Delicious! What a fun cookbook! Congrats & Best of luck!
Lavender on lollipops , never heard of it .ohh, why I didn’t taught of it 🙁 .. but looks really yummy 🙂
These look absolutely adorable! And I bet they taste delicious!
xo katie // a touch of teal
Congratulations, Anita! Was excited about this book since you told me about it when we met last summer. Such a delicious project. Excited to see it! Any chance you’re appearing in the city to show it off to readers first hand????
What a wonderful flavor combination for a lollipop. Congratulations on the new book. I’ll have to check it out!
Congratulations on your new book, Anita! Isabelle just gets more and more adorable.