- 1). Prepare your clean cotton strings, wooden sucker sticks, wooden swizzle sticks or candy apple sticks. Measure the height of your glass jars and cut the strings a least 1 inch longer than the jar height measurement. Soak your sticks, strings or both in clean water for five minutes. Squeeze any excess water from the strings and tie a small knot at one end of each string. Roll the strings or sticks in white granulated sugar. Place the strings or sticks on wax paper and allow them to dry overnight.
- 2). Sterilize the glass jars by placing them in a large pot. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat and allow the water to continue to boil for two minutes. Remove the pot from the stove, remove the jars from the pot and allow them to completely cool and dry.
- 3). Thread a small wooden bead onto your string, letting the knot you tied hold the bead onto the string and act as a weight. Tie your prepared strings, sugar end down, to a wooden dowel that is long enough to lay over the jar opening. Secure the wooden sticks to the dowel with additional string. The sticks need to hang horizontally from the dowel. Both strings and sticks must be short enough not to touch the bottom of the jars.
- 4). Heat your glass jars so the rock candy will not form on the sides of the jars. Pour boiling water into the glass jars to raise the temperature of the glass.
- 5). Measure 4 1/2 cups of white granulated sugar. Measure 2 cups of water. Mix the water and sugar together in a 2-qt. pan. Stir the mixture occasionally as you bring it to a boil over medium heat. Let the mixture boil for five minutes, stirring every so often to make sure the sugar dissolves and doesn't settle to the bottom of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for five minutes.
- 6). Pour the hot water out of the jars. Place the strings or sticks in the jars and lay the wooden dowels over the jar openings to support the sticks or strings.
- 7). Pour 1 cup of the sugar water from the pan into each of the four jars. Add two or three drops of your choice of food coloring and flavored oil to each jar. Make each jar a different color and flavor if you like. Cover the top of each jar with foil and move the jars to an area where they cannot be disturbed.
- 8). Check the jars every two or three days and use a spoon to break up any sugar crystals that form on the surface of the sugar water. Remove the rock candy from the jars after 10 to 14 days. Lay the candy on wax paper and let it dry.
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