Try this honey lollipop recipe without sugar that’s refined! Whether you call them honey pops, honey suckers, honey candy, or honey lolly, these pure honey lollipops are easy to make. Learn how to make honey lollipops for tea or use them as a home remedy for coughs. You can leave them plain, but a touch of lemon and ginger makes them an extra special treat!
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🍯 Honey Pops
Here are the honey sucker ingredients:
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract (or edible and food-safe lemon essential oil, optional)
- ¼ teaspoon ginger powder
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There are endless variations you can make with this honey lemon lollipop recipe. For example, swap cinnamon for the ginger, add a pinch of cayenne pepper for kick, or use orange flavoring instead of lemon. I’m thinking you could even use maple syrup or vegan honey in place of regular honey (though I’ve yet to test these).
You also need a few pieces of special kitchen equipment to make homemade honey lollipops:
- Candy thermometer
- Silicone lollipop molds (bigger or smaller molds will make fewer or more lollipops)
- Lollipop sticks
- Cellophane wrapping bags with ties (Individually wrapping the lollipops keeps them from sticking together)
I’m using this silicone lollipop mold for hard candy. It comes with the lollipop sucker sticks, treat bags, and twist ties, so you don’t need to buy items these candy making items separately.
Can you use honey instead of corn syrup in lollipops?
Though you can technically substitute honey for corn syrup in lollipop recipes, it will alter the flavor, sweetness, texture, and consistency of the pop. For a classic lollipop, you need to use lots of sugar or corn syrup with just a touch of honey.
Honey only lollipops are softer than normal and melt in your mouth. You need to watch them closely while heating the honey so they don’t burn.
🍭 Honey Lollipop Recipe
Here are the step-by-step instructions for how to make honey suckers:
- Put the honey in a small pot over medium heat on the stovetop. (A non-stick pot will make your life easier.)
- Heat it to precisely 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150C), or the hard crack stage using a candy thermometer. Whisk the honey occasionally as it heats, and don’t walk away! You don’t want it to go over 300F, as it burns easily.
- After heating, quickly stir in the lemon flavor and ginger, and put the mixture into silicone molds for lollipops.
- To fill the molds, I put 1 teaspoon of heated honey in each lollipop compartment, add the sticks, then cover with an additional ½ teaspoon honey. (Work fast so the candy mixture doesn’t harden on you!) If you get the pop molds I recommend, the recipe should fill it exactly, making 12 lollipops.
- Refrigerate the diy honey lollipops for 1 hour or more. After they harden, they should release easily from the molds, and can be packaged in the cellophane lollipop bags.
Store these no sugar honey lollipops (well, no white sugar) in the refrigerator, where (like honey) they will keep indefinitely. They also freeze well. These healthy honey lollipops get sticky and soft if left for long periods of time at room temperature.
Please keep in mind that babies under one should not have honey (source), and lollipops are a choking hazard and not safe until at least age 4 (source). Thus, these honey lollipops, as well as other lollipop recipes, are not for toddlers and babies.
Though these honey lollipops melt easier than hard candy, they form a sticky glob that still creates a choking hazard. Anyone with underdeveloped swallowing mechanisms, or those with other swallowing difficulties should skip this one.
How to make manuka honey pops?
If money is no issue, you can substitute expensive Manuka honey for regular honey in this recipe. However, you lose out on potentially beneficial enzymes and other good stuff when you expose mauka honey to excessive heat to make manuka honey lollipops (source).
Therefore, I don’t recommend using Manuka honey for lollipops, or exposing it to heat above 104-105F (40C). You can use it to sweeten tea or coffee, as long as the beverage is gently warmed to no hotter than 105F. Since this lolly recipe is cooked, I wouldn't use any raw honey to make this homemade candy.
FAQs
Honey lollipops made with 100% honey will naturally become sticky if left at room temperature. To decrease their stickiness, store honey lollipops in the fridge. Alternatively, make a traditional lollipop recipe using mostly granulated sugar or corn syrup, with just a touch of honey for flavor.
To make honey lollipops no mould, pour a small amount of hot honey syrup on parchment paper or wax paper in a freeform shape. Press the sticks into the blobs of hot honey, and let them harden. When cooled and solidified, they should be easy to peel off the paper.
I can find honey lollipops near me at health food stores like Whole Foods. You can also buy honey lollipops online at Amazon. Two popular brands are Little Remedies Lollipops and Wedderspoon Manuka Honey Pops.
The ingredients in Wedderspoon Manuka honey lollipops are organic cane syrup, organic Manuka honey, organic brown rice syrup, citric acid, ascorbic acid, and natural flavor.
To make honey spoons, follow the directions for how to make honey pops to heat the honey. Next, dip heat-safe spoons into the honey, filling the bowl of the spoon, instead of pouring the honey into lollipop molds. Let the spoons dry and harden on wax paper or parchment paper in the fridge.
To make honey sticks, heat seal the end of a clear plastic straw. Fill the straw with room temperature honey using a squeeze bottle, leaving some room at the top of the straw. Pinch the opening of the straw closed with pliers and heat seal it.
👩🏻🍳 Other Candy and Treat Recipes
Now that you’ve got the scoop on what are honey pops, check out these other treat and candy recipes:
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📖 Recipe
Honey Lollipop Recipe for Tea or Coughs (Honey Pops Lollipops)
Ingredients
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract
- ¼ teaspoon ginger powder
Instructions
- Put the honey in a small pot over medium heat on the stovetop. (A non-stick pot will make your life easier.)
- Heat it to precisely 300℉ (150℃), or the hard crack stage using a candy thermometer. Whisk the honey occasionally as it heats, and don’t walk away! You don’t want it to go over 300℉ (150℃), as it burns easily.
- After heating, quickly stir in the lemon flavor and ginger, and put the mixture into silicone molds for lollipops.
- To fill the molds, I put 1 teaspoon of heated honey in each lollipop compartment, add the sticks, then cover with an additional ½ teaspoon honey. (Work fast so the candy mixture doesn’t harden on you!) If you get the pop molds I recommend, the recipe should fill it exactly, making 12 lollipops.
- Refrigerate the diy honey pops for 1 hour or more. After they harden, they should release easily from the molds, and can be packaged in the cellophane lollipop bags.
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