Best Lkg Lobster Lollipops Recipes

PULLED SUGAR LOLLIPOPS

Steps:

• Place the sugar, vinegar and water in a saucepan over high heat. Insert a candy thermometer and cook until the sugar reaches 320 degrees F. Use a pastry brush to keep the inside of the saucepan clean as the sugar cooks or the sugar may recrystallize. To do this, dip a clean brush in cold water and brush the inside of the pan clean. Pour the cooked sugar onto 3 or 4 silicone baking mats. If you want to color and/or flavor the sugar with food colors and/or flavored oils, this is the time to do so. Add a few drops of flavor and color to the sugar. Mix with a wooden skewer. To get started, push the sugar from the sides toward the center. This process takes a little while. Try to keep the sugar divided by color. Use the mat to push the firm sugar around the edges toward the center, using a folding motion. When it has just cooled enough to handle, pick up the sugar with your hands. Place each color under the heat of a sugar lamp.
• Pull the sugar until it becomes glossy and the color is evenly distributed. You will need to pull the colors simultaneously. Keep them under the sugar lamp but keep an eye on them. The lamp can melt the sugar so it is important keep rotating it and folding it onto itself.
• Pull a walnut-sized piece from the sugar and form it into a small ball. Use your palm to press the ball flat. Shape it into a circle or oval. Insert the lollipop stick. Set the lollipop on the silicone baking mat (it will stick if you place it directly on your work surface.) Pull and cut small pieces of sugar and form them into the eyes, mouth, nose, eyebrows or whatever feature you desire. Stick the pieces directly onto the lollipop. The sugar will be hot enough to adhere. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE LOLLIPOPS

Steps:

• If desired, add nuts to any or all of the chocolates. Pour the chocolate into the molds, filling them to the top. Set the sticks in place by inserting them just far enough to be secure within the mold you are using. Set the molds aside to allow the chocolate to set. When set, simply pop out the lollipops. If you are using molding compound, roll it into a 1/2-inch-thick rectangle on top of a sheet of parchment paper. Using a sharp paring knife, cut out whatever shapes you would like and remove the cutout, leaving the homemade mold. Spray the inside edge of the molding compound with vegetable cooking spray and pour the chocolate into the cut out space. Insert the lollipop sticks and let cool completely before removing the molding compound. When finished, the molding compound can be saved and reused for another day.
• How to Temper Chocolate (From Dessert Circus, Extraordinary Desserts You Can Make At Home by Jacques Torres): Chocolate is tempered so that after it has been melted, it retains its gloss and hardens again without becoming chalky and white (that happens when the molecules of fat separate and form on top of the chocolate). There are a variety of ways to temper. One of the easiest ways to temper chocolate is to chop it into small pieces and then place it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time on high power until most of the chocolate is melted. Be very careful not to overheat it. (The temperature of dark chocolate should be between 88 and 90 degrees F, slightly warmer than your bottom lip. It will retain its shape even when mostly melted. White and milk chocolates melt at a temperature approximately 2 degrees F less because of the amount of lactose they contain.) Any remaining lumps will melt in the chocolate's residual heat. Use an immersion blender or whisk to break up the lumps. Usually, chocolate begins to set, or crystallize, along the side of the bowl. As it sets, mix those crystals into the melted chocolate to temper it. A glass bowl retains heat well and keeps the chocolate tempered longer. Another way to temper chocolate is called seeding. In this method, add small pieces of unmelted chocolate to melted chocolate. The amount of unmelted chocolate to be added depends on the temperature of the melted chocolate, but is usually 1/4 of the total amount. It is easiest to use an immersion blender for this, or a whisk. The classic way to temper chocolate is called tabliering. Two thirds of the melted chocolate is poured onto a marble or another cold work surface. The chocolate is spread out and worked with a spatula until its temperature is approximately 81 degrees F. At this stage, it is thick and begins to set. This tempered chocolate is then added to the remaining non-tempered chocolate and mixed thoroughly until the mass has a completely uniform temperature. If the temperature is still too high, part of the chocolate is worked further on the cold surface until the correct temperature is reached. This is a lot of work, requires a lot of room, and makes a big mess. A simple method of checking tempering, is to apply a small quantity of chocolate to a piece of paper or to the point of a knife. If the chocolate has been correctly tempered, it will harden evenly and show a good gloss within a few minutes.

PSYCHEDELIC LOLLIPOPS

Steps:

• On a silpat or parchment lined baking tray, lay out lollipop sticks in rows, leaving 2 inches of space between them for fun free-form lollipops.
• Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a clean, dry, small saucepan (preferably one with a pouring spout) fitted with a candy thermometer and bring to a boil over high heat. Without stirring, cook until the mixture reaches 305 degrees F or "hard crack" stage on the candy thermometer. (While the syrup is cooking, occasionally wash down the sides of the pan with a clean brush dipped in water, to prevent crystallization.) Set up an ice bath in a sink.
• When the mixture is done, remove the pot from the heat and dip it into the ice bath for 15 seconds to stop the cooking. Remove the pot of syrup from the ice bath and stir in 1/2 teaspoon orange extract. Divide the sugar mixture between 2 heat-safe measuring cups. Color 1 measuring cup with yellow food coloring and the other with blue food coloring, stirring very gently with a wooden skewer so that the color is evenly distributed. To avoid air bubbles in the finished lollipops, stir the mixture gently in both directions, but be careful not to over mix.
• Pour or carefully spoon a little of the syrup around each lollipop stick, creating freeform designs covering at least a 1/4-inch of the end of each lollipop stick. Then add blue coloring to the yellow measuring cup to make green and add red food coloring to the blue measuring cup to make purple, and pour more syrup onto the pops.
• Re-warm the syrups in the microwave a few seconds at a time if they are cooling too much and setting up. Cool the lollipops for at least 20 minutes, until hard. Lift off the pan and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or 2 to 3 days if the weather is very humid.
• Notes about the recipe: Lollipops are the last thing you expect to see on a petit-four tray in a fancy restaurant ? so that's why I like to serve them last at mine. People burst out laughing when these jewel-like treats arrive on a silver platter after dessert. But then they sit back and savor those suckers right down to the stick! I never get tired of watching Chicago's most elegant diners licking lollipops like kids ? and taking a last few minutes to enjoy the evening.
• Using a very long stick makes these lollipops look and feel more fancy. The flower petals are also very pretty, but optional. If you plan to make these without lollipop molds, just arrange the sticks and petals on the cookie sheet. Let the syrup cool a bit to thicken it slightly, and then pour it over the ends of the sticks.

MERINGUE LOLLIPOPS

Steps:

• Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 250 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in a large clean dry bowl with a mixer on medium speed until foamy. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until thick and opaque, about 1 more minute. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until stiff shiny peaks form, about 5 more minutes.
• Transfer the meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe twenty-four 2 1/2-inch disks on the baking sheets, leaving space between each. Sprinkle with coarse sugar and/or silver nonpareils; bake at 250 degrees F until dry and crisp, 3 to 4 hours. Let cool completely on the baking sheets. Store in an airtight container in a dry place for up to 1 week.
• For the filling, combine the white chocolate chips and coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted. Sandwich some white chocolate mixture and a lollipop stick between 2 cookies; repeat to make 12 lollipops. Let set.

CUPCAKE LOLLIPOPS

Steps:

• For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup mini muffin pans with paper liners.
• Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.
• Beat the butter and granulated sugar together in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 4 minutes.
• Beat in the egg, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to medium low; beat in half the flour mixture, then all of the milk, then the remaining flour mixture until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Transfer the pans to a cooling rack and cool for 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pans and let them cool completely on the rack.
• For the buttercream: Combine the butter, confectioners' sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and increase the speed to medium-high. Mix until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 2 minutes more. Add 1 tablespoon of milk and mix to combine. Add more milk a 1/2 tablespoon at a time until the buttercream is firm but spreadable.
• Divide the buttercream evenly among 5 bowls, about a heaping 1/3 cup in each. Add the yellow gel food coloring to one bowl and mix until no streaks remain. Repeat with the remaining bowls of buttercream and the green, blue, violet and pink food colors. Scoop each color into a separate disposable piping bag with no tip; then snip off the tip of each bag so there is a hole about the size of a penny.
• Prepare a sixth piping bag fitted with a medium-sized round piping tip; this will be your decorating bag.
• Holding the decorating bag in one hand and the yellow buttercream bag in the other, pipe the yellow buttercream into the decorating bag making in a vertical stripe about 1 inch thick. Repeat with the remaining colors, working around the edge of the decorating bag to create stripes of each color and leaving at least 5 inches at the top so you can seal the bag. Be sure not to overfill the bag; you can repeat piping in the colored stripes if necessary.
• Once the cupcakes are completely cool, attach them to the lollipop sticks by poking small holes just big enough to fit a lollipop sticks in the bottom of each cupcake with the tip of a paring knife, poking through the paper liners.
• Slice 1/8 inch off the bottom (flat side) of each spice drop with a paring knife. Insert a lollipop stick through the domed top of a spice drops and slide it down so there is about 3/4 inch of the stick above the spice drop. This is where the cupcake will sit.
• Next, poke the lollipop stick into the hole in the bottom of a cupcake and slide the bottom of the cupcake down so it rests on the flat, sticky side of the spice drop. The lollipop stick should not poke through the top of the cupcake; if the cupcake seems wobbly, slide the gumdrop down a bit further and press the cupcake onto the stick a bit more. Anchor the assembled lollipop cupcakes in a Styrofoam board or stick them in tall containers filled with sugar or sprinkles. Repeat with the remaining lollipop sticks, spice drops and cupcakes.
• Holding a cupcake in one hand and the decorating bag in the other, starting in the center of the cupcake, pipe the frosting in a swirl over the top of the cupcake. Stick the frosted cupcake back into the Styrofoam to hold it upright. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.
• Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 2 days; remove from the refrigerator 1 hour before serving.