Peppermint lollipops

Put the sugar and cream of tartar into a saucepan with 200ml hot water. Gently heat until the sugar has completely melted, then increase the heat and boil until the mixture reaches the ‘hard crack’ stage on a sugar thermometer (or a small spoonful dropped into cold water sets hard). Remove from heat immediately and swirl in peppermint essence and enough green colouring to give a pale green colour – start by adding just one drop at a time.

Cover a heatproof surface with baking parchment. Using a metal spoon, carefully pour some peppermint syrup onto the paper – roughly ½-1 tbsp per lolly. Push a lolly stick into each. If the syrup becomes too thick, just put the pan back over a gentle heat briefly. But if the syrup is too hot and runny, the shapes won’t be as even so set it aside for a minute. Set lollies until hard.

To clean equipment after lollipop making drop everything back into the pan, fill with water and bring to the boil.