Corn Free Candy Corn

Ever since the Halloween candy has hit the shelves my kids have been begging me to make candy corn. It was not as hard as I thought it would be and turned out to be fun. The pictures will also show why I love the orange and yellow food coloring from Natural Candy Store. The colors are so vibrant and real looking and they taste so much better than the store bought stuff.

Corn Free Candy Corn
Adapted from Alton Brown

What you need:
4 1/2 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 ounce powdered milk (I use DariFree which you can find here)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
1/3 cup corn free corn syrup
2 1/2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons dairy free butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
orange and yellow food coloring

Directions:
I did mine just like Alton Brown did except for using natural food coloring. Follow his directions here. I also took tiny cookie cutters and used them to cut out solid colored bit sized candies. After I cut and shaped my candies they were still a bit sticky. I decided to place them in my dehydrator for a few hours on the lowest setting. They firmed up on the outside but are still nice and soft on the inside. Since they had a few hours in the dehydrator they can be stacked together to store.

DIY: Corn Free Corn syrup

I know that my title sounds a bit funny but you can make a corn syrup substitute so you don't have to use corn syrup. Why would you want to do that? So you can make candy corn! We have eliminated non-organic and GMO corn from my kids diet because they react to it similar to how they react to gluten. This means no corn syrup and Cameron really wanted me to make candy corn, which needs corn syrup.
I looked at many different substitutes and I did not want my candy to have a dark tint to them. This lead me to make my own corn syrup. It is not hard to make and it works perfectly to make candy corn.

Corn Free Corn Syrup

What you need:
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt and a pinch

Directions:
Combine sugar, water and salt together in a heavy bottom pan and bring to a boil stirring constantly. Place the lid on the pan and cook at a simmer for 3 minutes. After the 3 minutes clip a candy thermometer on and cook till 240 degrees. Let cool slightly and store in a glass jar. Please be very careful as this is very hot stuff that will burn if you are not careful! I used most of the recipe making candy corn. The longer it sits the more it will form sugar crystals but warming the syrup will even the syrup back out. 

Yes, I know it's not the best picture but you get the idea.