Ingredients:
approx. 2 tsp (5 g) dried sage leaves or 10 g fresh sage leaves
1 cup of water
200g sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
Baking paper, cookie sheet or a candy-sized silicone mold
Preparation:
If you use fresh sage leaves, cut them into small pieces. I recommend using already dried sage leaves. Make tea water to boil the sage leaves (sage tea or see also tea infusion). Let the sage tea steep in a cup of approx. 200 ml (small cup) for approx. 10 minutes. The longer the sage tea sits, the stronger it becomes. But please no longer than 20 minutes. It can then be strained.
If you use a fresh lemon, you can also squeeze it.
Have baking paper or a cake tray or, ideally, a candy-sized silicone mold ready, so later you'll have to do it quickly. There are ice cube trays made of silicone or partial silicone that are really great and I used one of those.
Caramelize the sugar, lemon juice and sage tea in a saucepan over medium heat until completely melted and lightly brown. It shouldn't get too brown, otherwise it will be bitter. Stir with a wooden spoon or similar and please be careful because of the risk of splashing! If it boils too high or bubbles too much, simply remove the pot from the cooking surface and turn the temperature down on the hob.
Once the mixture has been stirred well and the sugar has completely melted, remove the pan from the heat and quickly spread it drop by drop, for example with a teaspoon, carefully on the baking paper or into a silicone mold. Please be very careful as the sugar mixture is extremely hot!!! The size of the drops should be the size of a piece of candy or suckable ;)
When the candy mixture has cooled down a little and is still malleable, you can shape the drops into small balls. It's a matter of practice to find out when the best time is. Just try.
Finally:
Once the drops/candies have cooled down, you can sprinkle them with powdered sugar so that they don't stick together.
Tip:
Lollipops also work with this recipe and all other herbs also work, for example. E.g. thyme candy, or how about lemon balm...
Again, please be careful when heating sugar. It gets extremely hot and there is a risk of burns!!! Please do not make this recipe if there are children around or present!
There are many recipes with herbal sweets, e.g. B. you should make the leaves as small as possible or add powder and add them to the caramelized sugar at the very end. Stay away from recipes like this. Later you will have all the small pieces of leaves or powder in the candy and therefore in your mouth - where it shouldn't go. I tried a recipe like this myself and didn't come up with another "good" solution.
Of course you can teach me better and give me tips.
The recipe above is therefore the smartest for me. Although I'm racking my brains over the herbs and hot water and honey. It should be noted that not every herb can be boiled in hot water, i.e. at 100 degrees Celsius, and honey loses valuable ingredients at around 40 degrees Celsius. Besides, the candy is already sweet, so why add honey to it, which already loses the best ingredients at low temperatures. I would like to point out that I like honey a thousand times better than sugar because of its ingredients. Sugar causes tooth decay, so please don't eat too many sweets a day and brush your teeth thoroughly several times a day.
So now have fun simmering and enjoy it. :) They are really delicious.