Chileta Mango

July 24, 2016

Chileta Mango

A friend handed me a sucker this week with the disclaimer "it's spicy on the outside" So I tried it. Once you get passed the chili flavor the mango candy was really good. I'm good with spicy so that part didn't bother me, on first lick it tasted like eating dried chili powder which I wasn't a fan of, the taste was a little strange. But I really wanted to like the sucker, and more importantly try both parts of it. Once I got through the dark rusty brown outside it gave way to a pretty light green color. I was still a little skeptical since I don't usually enjoy artificially flavored hard candy. But I was especially surprised to find out I actually liked this one, it even tasted a little bit like mangoes.

So Fast forward a few years, from 2016 to the 2019 updated and I wanted to move the this from an about post to a recipe. So I got some sucker sticks, and found some mango flavoring, read up on hard candy making, and then got to the hard part. The chili exterior. I hadn't originally been a fan of the chili powder used to I went with tajin, a Mexican spice with chili and lime. It's great on so many things, and these suckers are one of them.

The hardest part of these suckers was the shape. I never really could get the proper mango shape. But rest assured, the blobby ones taste just as good. Though I added my own flavoring and seasoning the basic sucker recipe come from Just a Taste, please click on the link and check out the post, she has way better instructions on candy making.

2 c. sugar
2/3 c. corn syrup
1/4 c. water
2 (1 fl. dram bottles) mango candy flavoring oil
3-4 drops orange food coloring
Tajin sprinkle

1 1/2 dz. sucker sticks

Candy thermometer

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a sauce pan combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat and place a candy thermometer in to the mixture. Keep cooking until the sugar is melted and the mixture is clear.

Use a pastry brush, dipped in water, and use it to brush the sides of the pan to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to boil the mixture, brushing the sides, until the thermometer reaches the hard crack stage at 310*F. I usually take it off the heat at 309*F or just shy of 310.

Remove the pan from the heat and immediately add in the food coloring and 2 drams of mango flavoring. Swirl to combine.

All the mixture to cool slightly, it will thicken as it does.

Pour about a teaspoon worth of mixture on to the cookie sheet lines with parchment. Place a sucker stick in to the mixture and swirl to coat. Immediately sprinkle with the tajin seasoning.

Repeat with all of the mixture, you should have about a 18 suckers. All to cool and harden completely.

Store in an airtight container up to a week

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