Good Ship Lollipop - Homemade Shirley Temple Lollipops

The Good Ship Lollipop sails the open seas bringing joy to everyone except her photographer (Jonathan balked at taking the photo above: "So cheesy!").  The Good Ship Lollipop's passengers are two homemade Shirley Temple lollipops made with grenadine and lemon. 

The Good Ship Lollipop's passengers were my very first homemade lollipops.  Believe me, it's much easier than you might think.  You can do it!  I was prepared to have to make multiple batches before getting it right, but the lollipops worked swimmingly on the first try (Well, technically it was the second try.  During the first try, I forgot to take the plastic wrapping off of my new candy thermometer before putting it in the hot candy - oops!).


What The Heck is The Good Ship Lollipop?

Please let me know in the comments if prior to this post you had never heard of The Good Ship Lollipop.  I thought that most people had heard of it, but my mom said, "No young people will know what you are talking about.  That song is so old!"  I'm wondering who is right.

The Good Ship Lollipop is a Shirley Temple song from 1934.



The comments on the YouTube post about this video are really interesting.  People mention how Shirley Temple's short dress and the fact that she is around older men would by today's standards make the men perverts. Back then, she was just a cute kid.  Girls didn't grow up so quickly.  This has nothing to do with cupcakes or lollipops, but it's a thought to ponder.



How to Make Shirley Temple Lollipops

To make Shirley Temple lollipops, I modified a recipe from a post on Celebration Generation about making LolliHops - beer flavored lollipops (don't you want to try that recipe?). 

Yield: About 36 lollipops

• 1/3 C grenadine (I used homemade grenadine and I strongly recommend that you do the same.  It's really easy to make.)
• 1 C sugar
• 1/2 C light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• lollipop sticks
• lollipops molds (optional, but useful if you want your lollipops to look more professional)

1. Fill a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan with ice water and set aside.
2. Spray lollipop molds with cooking spray or, if you aren't using molds, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan on medium-high heat, combine grenadine, sugar, corn syrup, and lemon extract.
4. Stir regularly and bring to a boil.
5. Continue to boil until the mixture reaches 300 F on a candy thermometer. Watch VERY closely.  If it gets much higher than that, it will burn.  I highly recommend that you use a digital candy thermometer with an alarm.  That way, turning your back for a minute won't cause you to burn your candy.  If you don't have one, just don't turn your back!
6. Immediately move the hot pot into the ice water bath and leave it there for just 20 seconds.
7. Pick the pot up and swirl it around for a couple of minutes to let it continue to cool and thicken a bit.
8. For lollipop molds: Working quickly, spoon mixture into lollipop molds.  Put the lollipop stick about halfway up the candy (as shown below) and swirl the stick around so that it is completely coated with candy.  For baking sheet method:  Drop spoonfulls of the candy onto the baking sheet.  The beauty of this method is that you can make your lollipops as big as you want!  Put the lollipop stick about halfway up the candy (as shown below) and swirl the stick around so that it is completely coated with candy.
9. After the lollipops cool, remove them and they'll be ready to suck!

Why Shirley Temple Flavored Lollipops?

Groom 4.0 has chosen his flavor for the wedding (Piña Colada cupcakes).  Before she decides on her pick, Bride 4.0 wanted me to remake the Shirley Temple cupcakes that I made a few years ago.  She remembered loving them.  I'll be remaking those soon (with some modifications since I didn't like them as much as she did), and since I was thinking Shirley Temple, why not make lollipops?!

Dental Warning

Warning: Brush well after eating these lollipops.  They are particularly sticky!