One of our Christmas traditions is making cinnamon candy!  We have done this for as long as I can remember.  I did it with my grandmother as a child as well.  I went from being the one to put the powdered sugar on then and move them to the sides of the tray, to supervising the kids moving them and preparing then heating up the batches.  To this day, my grandmother still cuts the hot candy.  One day I will be taking that over as well, and will teach the older kids how to prepare the batches.

We made cinnamon candy one day while the girls were at school.  Since Kyle is still in preschool, he was learning how to move the candy to the sides of the tray.  He had so much fun playing in the powdered sugar as well.  He started wearing an apron, but soon decided he didn’t like the apron and took it off.

We made a total of 6 batches of candy on this day before I had to take Kyle to preschool.  It was fun watching him learn about the candy making process and learning how to feel the candy and determine if it’s cooled off enough to go into the bowl.  Candy making day is one of our most fun traditions!  If you try this one, I hope you enjoy it as much as our family does.

Cinnamon Candy Recipe

2/3 cup Karo
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp red food coloring
1 tsp cinnamon (2 tsp if you like it hotter)
1 c powdered sugar
Candy thermometer
Butter

Mix Karo, sugar and water.  Heat to 290 degrees.  This has to be exact otherwise it won’t set right, so make sure you use the thermometer and watch it closely.  Especially once it reaches 250, it goes up fast.  Once it reaches 290, take it off the stove and stir in the red food coloring.  Make sure you are using a wooden spoon to stir, plastic will melt.  Allow it to cool for just a moment before stirring in the cinnamon.  Pour the hot candy onto a buttered cookie sheet and allow it to cool just a little more.  You want it to still be hot enough to not harden, but it’s hard to handle at such hot temperatures.  The second cookie sheet should have powdered sugar on it.  Use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the candy into small pieces.  You have to work fast, because once it cools, it’s too hard to cut.  Have someone else move the candy to the sides of the tray, not letting the pieces touch.  The hot candy will stick together.  Once it’s cool enough, you should be able to hold it and it feels hard, put the candy into a bowl to finish cooling.  Once it’s cold, you can put the candy into containers to store or bags to give away!

And there you have our family cinnamon candy recipe.  It’s so fun to pass this one on to your kids!  They love playing in the powdered sugar and helping with the candy!  Have fun if you make this!