Homemade Lemon Drop Candy Recipe
Easy Lemon Drop Candy Recipe – Homemade Sour Hard Candy
If you’re a fan of sour hard candies like Warheads, you’ve gotta try this festive lemon drop candy recipe! These goodies are bursting with intense, lemony flavor that’s so-sour-but-so-good—it’ll make your face pucker with joy.
Seriously, don’t be fooled by the cute heart shapes… Made with freshly-squeezed lemon juice, these homemade sour hard candies have an all-natural, fiercely tart taste. But, with a dose of sweet sugary goodness to complement the sour.
*For the freshest and most flavorful hard candies, I recommend freshly-squeezing your lemon juice. (Instead of bottled lemon juice from the store.)
And, those are the only 2 ingredients you need for this easy lemon drop candy recipe: lemons and sugar! All of the powerful, sour bite of a Warhead candy, but made with simple ingredients and no corn syrup, artificial flavors, colors, or junk.
A fun, cleaner recipe for homemade sour hard candy—and so easy!
Homemade Sour Hard Candy Tips & Tricks
Okay, so this lemon drop hard candy recipe IS super simple, but a few steps in the procedure can be tricky. First, while your lemon juice and sugar mixture boils, stir REGULARLY. You want a thick, syrupy consistency, but you don’t want it to stick to the inside of your pot!
And, be patient—it will take around 20-30 minutes to thicken. Once it’s good and syrupy, add a few droplets of your mixture into a cup of cold water to test it. If it crystallizes and becomes brittle, it’s ready! Finally, the last step in this lemon drop candy recipe is also the trickiest…transferring to your mold.
I recommend using a silicone mold because they’ll be easier to pop out once they harden. And, place your molds on a baking sheet before starting to fill. Also, choose a mold with smaller, candy-sized cavities—you don’t want sour hard candies that are HUGE and cupcake-sized!
Most importantly, you’ve got to work quickly during the transferring, because the syrup will harden as it sits longer. Personally, I use a syringe to transfer my sticky mixture into the molds for more precision and less mess. Then, pop the molds in the fridge and allow your homemade lemon drops to harden!
BONUS Tip:
If you’re feeling adventurous, you could try making a different flavor of homemade sour hard candy with a different fruit! But, depending on the fruit, you may want to strain your juice through a fine mesh strainer if it’s fairly pulpy or fibrous.
For this homemade lemon drop candy recipe, you likely don’t need to worry about it. (Unless your lemon juice is very pulpy, of course.) I didn’t strain my juice and it turned out wonderfully!
Sour, Sweet, and Simple
When you’ve had enough of holiday sweets and pumpkin spice, give this sour lemon drop candy recipe a try! A fun 2-ingredient treat to make during the holiday season, or to give as a DIY Christmas gift. But, be warned: these are seriously SOUR hard candies—not for the faint of taste bud!
Lemon Drop Candy Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 lemons, 1 cup freshly-squeezed juice
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Squeeze lemons until you get 1 cup of fresh juice.
- Combine lemon juice and sugar and stir to dissolve.
- Boil mixture until thick and syrupy—about 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly. Test the syrup by dropping a small bit into cold water—if it crystallizes and becomes brittle, it’s ready!*Taste your mixture as you go—if there's any hint of burnt flavor, it's a good time to stop cooking. (Even if your test droplets aren't totally crystallizing yet—see note below.)
- Spray down a mini muffin tin or silicone mold with cooking spray and add heated mixture to the tin/mold. Fill each mini muffin cup less than halfway full, or fill small silicone molds about ¾ full. (I used a cooking syringe to help transfer my syrup into the silicone molds.)
- Transfer filled molds to the fridge to cool until hardened, ~1-2 hours.
- Pop out and enjoy!
- Yields 30 homemade lemon drop hard candies.
Notes
- Making homemade hard candy can be tricky, and your mixture can go from tasty to burnt-tasting quickly.
- Based on what I’ve heard from others who’ve tried this recipe, I recommend tasting your mixture as you go. If there’s any hint of burnt flavor or the flavor starts to become less lemony, that’s a good time to stop cooking! (Even if your test droplets aren’t totally crystallizing yet.)
- Rather than waiting for your mixture to stick to the pan or crystallize in the pan, continue checking the mixture for brittleness by dropping it in cold water – and make sure the water is genuinely cold!
- Check out the video embedded in the post at the 1:20 mark, and you can see what that brittleness looked like for me. In a clear glass cup, you should be able to see the droplets crystallize in the water and that’s the signal that it’s ready.
23 Comments on “Homemade Lemon Drop Candy Recipe”
I enjoyed your excitement when you wrote of these little lemon candies. They are no longer available in our stores. You have a good thing going here. The recipe is so very simple and we can now make better lemon drops than in the stores!
Question: How can I make the candies less sour? Would you send that recipe to my email? Thank You!
Ali McCoy
I struggled with this coming out tasting burnt. tasted fine even as it darkened, and all of a sudden, around 25 minutes, it started tasting burnt. i took it off the heat almost immediately, but i can’t stand the burnt taste.
i did do the whole recipe and kept checking if it was ready by dropping a few drops into ice cold. I feel maybe the recipe could use a few extra details. Reading comments and replies, it seems the heat is finicky, and so the recipe is not as beginner friendly as it comes off. may try this again, though it will have to be after i buy some more lemons
Hi Grace, I’m sorry that this recipe didn’t turn out as tasty as you hoped. That can be frustrating, and I also wouldn’t like that burnt taste. We appreciate your thoughtful feedback about this recipe & that it could benefit from more details – we will do our best to make the recipe clearer & more user-friendly, based on your experience & others who’ve commented here. Thank you for trying the recipe & taking the time to leave this comment!
Hello, does it have to be freshly squeezed juice or can it be store bought.
Thanks
Hi Will, these homemade lemon drop candies will have the freshest, brightest flavor when made with freshly squeezed lemon juice. You’re welcome to try the recipe using store-bought lemon juice, although your hard candies may turn out less flavorful and a bit more bitter! Hope this helps 🙂
If you like extremely sour candy this is for you, it comes out tasting a bit more like molasses but it’s pretty easy to make.
Hi there, thanks for trying this homemade lemon drop candy recipe! We’re glad that you found it easy to make. We agree, the flavor is pretty sour and citrusy but we enjoy it 🙂
Recipe is a little bit finicky but after some time chilling, they turned out great! Really fun to make candy at home
That’s so awesome to hear, Jordan! We also had to go through a few batches to get our homemade lemon drop candies just right, but they turned out SO good once we got the heat & consistency right. Thanks for giving them a try 🙂
Mine tastes a little burnt 🙁 I stirred almost constantly after about the 10 minute mark (of course I stirred before then, just not constantly) and kept dropping a few drops off my spoon into my glass of cold water. Then I’d dig the drops out and eat them to check for brittleness 😉 Could definitely tell around the 20 minute mark that the lemon flavor was decreasing and a slight burnt flavor was increasing, though. It never stuck to the pan or crystallized or burnt *on* the pan, just tastes burnt. Should I try not cooking it as long? Could it be the result of cutting the recipe in half (1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup sugar) for my first test batch?
It’s in the fridge to chill and set now, I’ll see if that helps the flavor any.
Hi Dawen, thank you for trying out the recipe and letting us know how it went for you! I’m sorry to hear that this batch is tasting a bit burnt, it sounds like you have some good ideas about how to adjust for next time.
I’d say yes, cutting the recipe in half likely contributed to your mixture cooking a bit faster, which may have resulted in that burnt flavor you noticed around the 20 minute mark. If you try this using the halved measurements again, I would monitor closely and be prepared for a cook time closer to 15 minutes! Trust your taste buds if you start to notice that flavor change.
However, I personally would recommend preparing the full recipe, as that will have the lowest risk of your mixture burning or turning since there’ll be a bit more volume to fill up your pan. And, rather than looking for it to stick to the pan or crystallize in the pan, be sure to continue checking the mixture for brittleness by dropping it in that cold water – and make sure that it’s genuinely cold! If you watch the video embedded in the post at the 1:20 mark, you can see what that brittleness looked like for us. In a clear glass cup, you should be able to see the droplets crystallize in the water and that’s the signal that it’s ready.
I hope this can be helpful 🙂 and let us know how things go if you try the recipe again!
Hi. It doesnt seem to be hardening. What do i do.
Thanks
Hi Reece, I’m sorry to hear this candy isn’t hardening properly for you! It’s hard to say what exactly might’ve gone wrong without being there myself – DIY hard candy recipes can be tricky. How long did you boil the mixture? Did it become thick and syrupy, and did you test it by dropping a small bit into cold water to see if it was ready? You may also need to leave it in the fridge a bit longer, or even overnight!
my grandmother made this recipe. thanks
Fantastic so glad to hear it! Thanks for letting us know 🙂
Hi, can other fruit juice be used? Want to try elderberry.
Hi Michelle, we actually haven’t tried this recipe with any juice other than lemon juice so I can’t say for sure what else would work! Lemon juice is highly acidic, so replacing it with a different juice that’s not as acidic may yield different results. But, you’re welcome to experiment with elderberry juice and see how it turns out! 🙂
Can I cut the amount of lemon juice to 1/2 cup to make it not quite so tart?
Hi Kathy, unfortunately homemade candy recipes tend to be pretty finicky, and so I can’t be sure how the recipe would turn out by cutting the lemon juice amount in half. You could try cutting it and replacing with water instead, but I can’t say for certain that the recipe would still work and that the candies would harden properly! You could do some experimenting to find out if you’re willing to give it a try 🙂
Can one use Splenda instead of sugar . I am diabetic
Hi Kirk, unfortunately it would be difficult to substitute for the sugar in this homemade candy recipe. The crystals and composition of white granulated sugar are important to the chemistry of this recipe, whereas an artificial sweetener like Splenda (or a natural no-calorie sweetener like Splenda) might not work out very well. You’re welcome to do some experimenting and give it a try, but we can’t say for sure how those sugar-free candies will turn out!
How do you stop it from boiling over…???
Mine started to boil and went all over the place!
Hi Louise, great question! When we first made this recipe, we also struggled with the pot boiling over… Honestly, our best advice is to keep the pot uncovered, monitor and stir the pot regularly, removing it from the heat for a few moments any time it begins to boil over. It’s a recipe that does require some patience! Hope this helps 🙂