Using Plastic Chocolate Candy Molds For Hard Candy, A Precautionary Tale

I am not an amateur in the kitchen, not even an amateur at working with candy molds. I am however, quite the amateur hard candy maker! Melting and pouring chocolates into molds is more my candy making style. Which would explain why I had way more chocolate molds than I had silicone candy molds. It didn't even occur to me that what I was about to do would result in melted plastic and inedible "candy", or in our case, homemade herbal cough drops.

When I set out to make the homemade herbal cough drop recipe, I rummaged through my bins of candy making supplies, and keeping the desired size in mind, grabbed a plastic mold that fit the bill. Although it was Christmas themed, I thought the size would work well. I must have thought at least four times before I began pouring the syrup that I should use the silicone molds instead, but I wasn't a huge fan of how deep they were.


My homemade herbal cough drop recipe, like any hard candy, requires you to get the syrup to 300 degrees (hard crack stage).  As I was transferring the syrup to the mold, I was initially frustrated with my inability to get the syrup to perfectly fill the mold just so. I ended up with extra syrup going up over the sides. I went full speed ahead anyway, thinking I'd be able to break the extra bits off after they cooled. As I filled the last candy mold cavity, I realized that the plastic candy mold was actually melting!


After doing a bit of looking around, I found they do in fact sell hard candy molds, like this hexagon mold that would be great for homemade herbal cough drops.

~On the bright side~

Although I was a bit frustrated about wasting good syrup for our homemade herbal cough drop recipe, there were many things that I am grateful for!

1. I had the foresight to put down wax paper to help with clean-up and it was indeed a lifesaver for my cookie sheet
2. I learned a valuable lesson about using the right "tool" for the job. 
3. I was reminded that silicone molds are awesome!

Do you have a "gone awry" kitchen story to share? We'd love to hear about it in the comments!