It’s easy to make suckers at home, and sometimes you can even let kids help. These homemade lollipop recipes make it simple to get started.
Another reason to make your own lollipops is that most commercially sold lollipops contain corn syrup and refined sugar, but you don’t have to use those ingredients in your home recipes. Some of these recipes do use it – it’s up to you.
Making lollipops is also fun. You can get creative with the flavors and the look of them. And it’s one of the most easy dessert recipes ever.
And you can choose whatever form of sugar or artificial sweetener you want to use, or make your own unique flavors. You can put your own twist on any of these recipes to create something really unique.
Learn How to Make Lollipops
It’s so easy once you know how to make lollipops. The basic technique with any lollipop recipe is: pour the melted liquid into a mold, stick a lollipop stick in it, and wait for it to cool. Then you’ve got your lollipop.
You’re going to need a candy thermometer and some candy molds. The best type of mold to use is a silicone mold for candy. They’re flexible, so it’s easy to pop the cooled lollipop out of the mold. And they’re non-stick without having any weird chemicals.
They also work well with cake pops, which you can make from any cake recipe, like our red velvet cake recipe.
But you don’t have to have a mold. You can make wonky lollipops instead – no mold, totally freeform. Kids actually enjoy getting to shape their own lollipops.
You’ll need some lollipop sticks for making these. We try to pick the more environmentally friendly choice for things like this.
In the past, you could go with either the plastic, non-biodegradable, but reusable ones, or the paper ones that aren’t reusable and involve cutting down trees, but are biodegradable.
But there’s a new choice: bamboo lollipop sticks. They’re not reusable like plastic, but they’re biodegradable like paper, and they come from a more renewable source of wood.
An Easy Corn Syrup Substitute
Here’s some good news: you can take any lollipop recipe that calls for corn syrup and substitute any of the following instead.
- Golden syrup is popular in the UK but rare to see in stores in the US. It will work in as a one-to-one substitute in hard candy making.
- Brown rice syrup is another one-to-one substitute that will work in hard candy.
Homemade Lollipop Recipes
These are the very simple to make homemade lollipop recipes. They're lots of fun, and kids love them.
How To Make Homemade Honey Lollipops Without Sugar
It's really easy to make lollipops at home without refined sugar or corn syrup. This recipe relies on honey for sweetness. You can actually even drop one into a cup of tea and let it melt to sweeten your tea!
Homemade Lollipop Recipe Without Corn Syrup
This lollipop recipe doesn't use any corn syrup. It's easy to make and tastes delicious.
Mint and Rose Lollipops
This is another recipe without corn syrup. It uses peppermint extract and rosewater for flavoring. If you've never had rosewater sweets, now is the time to try.
These Mermaid Tail Lollipops Will Make Waves
This recipe helps you transform Jolly Rancher candies into multicolored lollipops shaped like mermaid tails. They look magical, taste like Jolly Ranchers, and only take about 10 minutes to make.
Old Fashioned Suckers
This recipe for Old Fashioned Suckers gives you just the sort of flavored hard candy lollipops you remember from childhood. They don't look fancy, but they taste delicious.
Homemade Tootsie Pop - Easy Homemade Tootsie Pop Recipe
This looks and tastes a lot like the store bought version of Tootsie Roll Pops. They are great for kids' parties, but also as an everyday candy treat. And they're easy to make with just a few ingredients.
DIY Valentine Heart Lollipops
This recipe takes a serious shortcut by using Jolly Rancher candies as its base. They're lots of fun and easy to make into these cute double heart shapes that are perfect as Valentine's or anytime you want to show love.
This Grinch Lollipop Recipe is so Easy and Tasty!
Kids can help with these adorable green lollipops with hearts inside. They only take about 20 minutes. They're flavored with pralines and cream flavoring.
How to Make Chocolate Lollipops (Gluten Free & Vegan)
This recipe gives you chocolate lollipops that are both gluten free and vegan. They take a little while because working with chocolate always does, but they're worth it.
Vegan Recipe: Chocolate Date Nut Lollipops
Chocolate, Medjool dates and pecans make this fruity, chocolatey lollipop delicious. It's not your traditional sucker, but it is a terrific fruity dessert that's healthier than your average candy.
Monster Marshmallow Lollipops
These lollipops are marshmallows flattened and decorated to look like monsters. Loads of fun for kids to help make, and they can get creative with the faces they put on them.
Ring Pops - Make homemade ring pops 2 ways: in minutes or from scratch
Who knew you could make homemade Ring Pops? It only takes a few minutes to do the version that just has one ingredient. Or you can learn how to make them from scratch, and it's still pretty easy.
How to Make Sore Throat Lollipops
This recipe uses honey as a sweetener instead of sugar or corn syrup. It includes dried elderberries, rosehips, cinnamon and echinacea, all of which are believed by many to help boost the immune system.
Homemade Lollipops
Koolaid Hard Candy Lollipops
This recipe uses Koolaid for the coloring and flavoring in these lollipops. It only takes around a half an hour to make these.