Hop Flavored Beer Lollipops
This morning, I took a pretty nasty fall. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been dealing with a particularly stubborn hip injury. Long story short, I spent the day first in extreme pain, then high as a kite on Codeine.
Why am I telling you this? Well, it had a big part in inspiring today's recipe! They say "In Vino veritas" (In wine, truth). Yeah, well... In Codeine, Inspiration!
As you may or may not know, my husband has been enthusiastically enjoying his newest hobby, homebrewing. He got right into it this year, going so far as to grow his own hops! He loves his beer like he loves his chocolate - bitter as all hell, with intense flavor. I decided to use his home grown hops to flavor chocolate. Check out our blog tomorrow or Thursday for our Hop Truffles recipe!
By the time he got home from work, I had started making a second idea that sort of mutated off the idea of Hop truffles. You see, our Jalapeno Beer Brittle is proving to be an insanely popular recipe from our recently released cookbook, "The Spirited Baker: Intoxicating Desserts & Potent Potables". What if I bastardized that recipe, added hops to flavor it even more, and made hop flavored beer lollipops out of it? LolliHOPS!!
Well, I made, I saw, I conquered - and my husband is a very, very happy man! These were incredibly easy to make, anyone can make them at home!
More Hops Recipes!
Are you - or do you know - a die hard hophead? Just interested in learning more about adding a punch of flavour to your culinary repertoire? Either way, I have some more recipes for you!
Homemade Hop Extracts
Homemade Hop Spa Bath Set
Hop Flavoured Dark Chocolate Truffles
Hopped Cheesecake with Citrus Glaze
Hoppy Citrus French Macaron Recipe
Hoppy Citrus IPA Glazed Wings
Hoppy Dill Pickle Relish
Hoppy IPA BBQ Sauce
Hoppy IPA Pickles Recipe
Fan of hops? You'll LOVE my cookbook, Hedonistic Hops: A Hop Head's Guide to Kitchen Badassery"!
Hops are prized for their ability to impart varied, complex flavours to beer… but did you know they can also be used culinarily? While hops may seem like a bizarre or exotic item to cook with, it’s the same as using other herbs and spices in your kitchen… you just have to know what to do with them. Appetizers, main dishes, beverages.. even desserts can be uplifted with hops! Even those who are not fans of beer will love the unique flavours that various types of hops can bring to their plate. Floral, earthy, peppery, citrusy… Cooking with hops is a great way to expand your seasoning arsenal!
Order your copy directly through this website, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!
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Hop Flavored Beer Lollipops Recipe – LolliHOPS!
Equipment
Ingredients
- Small Amount of Butter
- ½ Cup Beer of Choice We used an IPA
- 6 Dried Hop Cones* We Used Centennial
- 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ Cup Light Corn Syrup
Instructions
- Use butter to generously grease the back of 1 or 2 baking sheets, set aside.
- Heat beer to a light simmer. Break up hop cones into leaves, add to warm beer. Remove from heat, allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Strain beer into a measuring glass, measuring only ⅓ cup. (The ½ cup measurement is to allow for some evaporation / hop leaf absorption). In a heavy saucepan (2 quart), mix together sugar, corn syrup, and strained ⅓ cup of beer.
- Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then attach candy thermometer to saucepan. Stir often until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees Celcius). KEEP A VERY CLOSE EYE ON IT after about 280 degrees, as the temp has a tendancy to race up at that point. If you turn your back, you could burn it!
- At 300 degrees, remove the pan from heat. Allow to cool & thicken slightly, stirring constantly – about 1 minute.
- Working quickly, drop small amounts of the hot sugar mixture onto the greased baking sheets – about 1-3 tsp(s) per, depending on the desired size of your lollihops.
- Lay a lollipop stick into each circle, so that the tip is near the center of the lollipop, and flat against the surface. (ie, you want it parallel to the baking sheet, not perpendicular to it!). Carefully give each stick a bit of a twirl, so that the candy coats around the stick to hold it in place.
- Cool completely, carefully remove from baking sheets. Wrap with plastic, waxed paper, parchment paper, or whatever. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe comes from my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker. It’s FULL of fun, tasty recipes using spirits and liqueurs for flavour – you should check it out:
Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more.
To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here on my website, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller.
Is the Hops absolutely necessary?
I'm not sure where to get any.....
Hops would be necessary for them to be hop flavored, but you can make beer flavored lollipops without the hops.
If you want hops, though, just look up your local beer/wine making store!
Hello Marie! I stumbled across your website after having a dream last night. I am lucky enough to be involved in a brewery start up in Texas so, to say the least, beer has been on my mind! Anyways i had a dream about a beer lollipop made out of the sweet wort (not sure if pre boil or post boil with the hop flavoring would be better). Have you ever tried anything like this? Also, how were your lollipops? Very bitter? Anyways I really like your website, I need to explore it a little more but I definitely want to continue the experimenting! Cheers from Texas!
Hi Jessica,
I've not tried making lollipops out of the wort, but it could definitely work. I'll give it a try, next brew day!
The bitterness of the hops was offset by the sugars in this lollipop, so it had a ton of flavor without being super bitter. My husband loved them, and he's a huge fan of bitter, hoppy beers. I don't personally even like beer, and I enjoyed the flavor of these as well!
Hope this helps, slàinte!
Thanks for sharing, linked to this and also hop truffles http://wildcraftvita.blogspot.it/2013/09/things-to-do-with-hops.html