Homemade Horehound Candy

This recipe is from fresh horehound leaves. My mom grew up with this (my grandpa would buy it all the time) and she hated it. We had horehound bush growing in the herb garden, and we wanted to try it. We found this recipe and tried it. It was not too bad. My DH seemed to like it, even though my mom hated it. So try it and see if you like it or not. NOTE: Horehound candy was also used as a medicinal remedy for coughs way back several years ago.

• Ready In: 2 hrs
• Serves: 100

Ingredients

• 2  cups  horehound leaves (packed)
• 1 1⁄4 cups water
• 4  cups dark brown sugar
• 1⁄4 cup light corn syrup

Directions

1. Wash horehound leaves and put in saucepan. Add water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, mashing occasionally with fork. Remove from heat; cover and let cool (needs to stand at least 1/2 hour to infuse.
2. While infusion in cooling, butter a 9x13 pan.
3. Drain horehound leaves into measuring cup (I use a coffee filter to strain it). Be sure to squeeze all the liquid from the leaves. Make sure you have at least 1 cup of liquid. Discard leaves.
4. Pour liquid into a 4 quart saucepan. Add brown sugar and syrup. Bring to a boil and cook to 300 degrees on a candy thermometer (hard crack stage).
5. Pour into prepared pan and let cool. Just before it sets up, score into squares with a knife to make it easier to break apart. When cool and set, break into pieces and store in airtight container.
6. Note: The infusion (liquid from the leaves) can be frozen to use later.