Lovin’s Medicated Hard Candy Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 cups sugar
- 2/3 cup light corn syrup
- 3/4 cup water
- Bubble hash or rosin
- (see dosage below)
- Food coloring (optional)
- 1.5 dram (1 1/8 tsp) of flavoring
The amount of bubble hash or rosin that you use is up to you and depends on the desired dose. It’s always better to start with less and add more if needed.
Instructions:
- Combine sugar, corn syrup, water and bubble hash (if using rosin, wait until Step 3 to add it) in a bowl and stir until dissolved. The hash won’t dissolve, but stir the hash in thoroughly.
- Pour the mixture into your cooking pan and add a candy thermometer. Cook on low to medium heat. Do not touch again. It’s very important to never mix the mixture once you turn on the heat. Do not walk away as the mixture could reach temperature quickly and boil over or burn, yikes!
- Once the mixture reaches 250ºF, add a few drops of food coloring (or you could leave it natural-colored, without food coloring). If using rosin, this is when you will pour your rosin-lecithin mix into the bowl as well. Do not mix it! Just pour food coloring and/or rosin in, and let it mix naturally until the next step.
- Once your thermometer reaches 300ºF, pull the mixture from the heat and stir in one and a half drams of flavoring. Cinnamon works very well to hide the flavor of hash.
- Whisk the flavoring into your mixture thoroughly and be careful of the steam that it produces. The steam comes up quickly so keep your hands and face protected. Hash will be stuck to the side of your pan, so stir that back into the mixture as well. Stir the hash in evenly and mix very well. It’s important to have the hash evenly mixed in.
- Pour into a candy mold of choice. I prefer smaller candy molds. The candy mixture will harden quickly, so be quick and deliberate when pouring into your candy molds.
- Once you take candies out of mold, coat them with powdered sugar for easy handling.
Figuring Out Dosage
You will need to know or estimate the active ingredient percentage of the hash you are using. For example, most rosin is around 80% active ingredients. Bubble hash can range anywhere from 50-80% depending on how clean your wash was (roughly).
I generally use my later bag pulls. I keep the first several bubble bag pulls for smoking. The last pulls are for edibles and topicals. The last pulls will have more plant material in it, hence a lower percentage of active ingredients.
To determine the strength of your candies, take how many milligrams of active ingredients (THC), and divide that number by how many candies you made. That will let you know the strength of each candy. Candy molds come in various shapes and sizes. I prefer smaller candies, but that’s a personal choice.
So, if one gram of bubble hash is approximately 50% THC, that equals 500 milligrams. If you make 100 candies, then each candy has approximately 5 milligrams of THC.
If you’re using one gram of rosin that is 80% THC, that equals 800 milligrams. Divide that by the number of candies, and each candy will be approximately 8 milligrams.
If it is your first time making the recipe or using a new batch of bubble hash or rosin, start slow when consuming until you get a sense of how accurate your potency estimate is.
Bubble Hash or Rosin?
For hard candies, either works well.
If you’re using bubble hash, you don’t need to decarboxylate (decarb) your product because it cooks with the mixture. If you choose to use rosin, decarb your rosin at 250ºF first. Pull rosin from the oven once it’s melted and stops bubbling. The time will vary; all hash is different. Add a teaspoon of sunflower lecithin and stir well. Pour the rosin mixture into your pan at the same time you would add your food coloring.
As far as decarboxylating bubble hash, my preference is to decarb in the mixture using low and slow heat. Decarboxylating bubble in the oven can be tricky—it can burn because of plant material. It’s kind of yucky. You can almost ‘toast’ the plant matter into it. That flavor comes out into your candies, which is not a desirable flavor for me.
I don’t mind bubble in hard candies. It’s easier for most home growers, too. A lot of home growers don’t make rosin or have access to the tools or equipment, so that’s why I include how to make hard candy with bubble hash.
But if you have the option, rosin is always better—it tastes better, has a better consistency, and results in a much better high, if you ask me.
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