Blue and gray and green. In Sarah Plain and Tall, these are Sarah’s favorite colors because they are the colors of the sea. To wrap up this month’s menu, I wanted to make a dessert reminiscent of Sarah’s home in Maine. I loved the idea of making sea glass candy—especially since sea glass reminds me so much of the little ocean treasures she shows Anna and Caleb—so I decided to go a step farther and make them in Sarah’s favorite colors too!
I used this sea glass candy recipe from Make Life Lovely, which turned out great. The instructions are simple and easy to follow, and the final product is delicious. I’m really pleased with the colors too. They came out with just the right misty, ocean-y feel I was hoping for. And they were delicious! They actually taste a lot like cotton candy. I wouldn’t recommend serving them to very young children since the ends can be a little sharp, but they’re great for older children and adults. We ate them right up! 🙂
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Sarah’s Sea Glass Candy
“My favorite colors are the colors of the sea, blue and gray and green. My brother William is a fisherman, and he tells me that when he is in the middle of a fogbound sea the water is a color for which there is no name.”
— Sarah Plain and Tall
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- pastel green, pastel blue, or black gel food coloring
- powdered sugar
- NOTE: The proportions above are for 1 batch/1 color of candy. To make all 3 colors, make 3 separate batches, dying each one a different color. The reason I recommend making each batch separately (rather than making 1 huge batch and dividing it into 3 bowls to dye) is because the hot candy would start to cool and stiffen before you could stir in the dye for all 3.
Makes about 7 oz of candy
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the water, sugar, and corn syrup until the sugar is dissolved. Continue to heat until the mix reaches 300° degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and the food coloring (2 drops of coloring if using pastel green, 2 drops if using pastel blue, and 1 drop if using black). Stir until the bubbles recede.
- Pour the candy mix onto the baking sheet and allow to cool completely (about 20-30 minutes). Place a sheet of parchment paper over the hardened sugar and hammer with a meet tenderizer to break into pieces. You don’t want the pieces to be too small to work with, so I recommend striking once at each of the far ends of the sheet of sugar then peaking under the parchment to see if you need to strike once more in the middle.
Before
After - Sprinkle powdered sugar on the pieces of candy glass and rub it in with a paper towel to create the frosted look characteristic of sea glass.
The blue piece in the middle has been coated with powdered sugar, while the two on either side haven’t. The plain candy is pretty if you’re going for a traditional sugar glass look, but the powdered sugar goes a long way to make it look like real sea glass. - NOTE: Your candy won’t come out the exact same color as the dye. Your final colors will be closer to aquamarine, light lime green, and purplish-gray. The purple is particularly evident when the gray pieces lay flat, but they look more gray when you hold them up.
- Serve the next time you long to be near the sea!
Pro Tip: If you have some small pieces that you don’t want to waste but don’t want to spend a bunch of time rubbing powder sugar on them, throw them in a wire mesh strainer with a little powdered sugar and toss well. They won’t look quite as perfect, but it gets the job done.
Check out some of my other candy recipes!
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