Homemade Cough Drops and Cough Drop Lollipops

Fall is officially here and with it came the beginning of my family’s cold season. Sigh. I was hoping we wouldn’t get sick quite so soon. However, with three kids and multiple kid filled events per week it was bound to happen.

There is one advantage to getting sick so early in the game; I now have an excuse to start making all kinds of home remedies. Some home remedies make the cut and some don’t but the ones that do I am going to share with you!

Cough drops can be a wonderful thing. Anyone with a sore throat or nagging cough will tell you that they love a good cough drop. The funny thing is that many cough drops are full of ingredients that aren’t good for you. Sugar, food dyes, soy can all be found in common cough drops. Do you really want to be using a cough drop with those ingredients?

The good news is that cough drops are incredibly easy to make! I found the original recipe at Little House in the Suburbs and when I saw someone mention lollipops and idea was born. Naturally kids need cough drops too but I don’t like giving my kids itty bitty pieces of hard candy. Cough drop lollipops are a logical solution. Cough drops on a stick.

Cough Drop Lollipops

½ cup to 1 cup honey (honestly any amount would do probably)

Candy thermometer (optional)

Lollipop sticks

Lollipop mold (although if you do not have a mold you could make free form lollipops by pouring the honey over the stick on a non-stick surface)

Cook-

Pour honey into small saucepan and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and bring honey to a boil. If using candy thermometer, insert in and continue to stir the honey until it has reached a temperature of 300 degrees. Remove from heat and move to test phase. If not using the candy thermometer then continue cooking and occasionally test. Just don’t wait too late to test; testing too early is better then testing too late.

Test –

To make sure your honey has reached the right consistency, place a drop or two of honey into a cup of ice water. If the honey turns and stays hard (like a hard candy) then you are good to go. If it is still soft then you need to keep cooking a bit longer.

Making the Lollipops –

With Molds- Grease lollipop molds and insert sticks so that they are ready in the mold. Pour honey into mold and let cool at room temperature. (No cheating and putting them into the fridge. It won’t work)

Without Molds- Lay lollipop sticks on a greased non-stick surface such as a silicone mat or parchment/wax paper. Carefully pour honey over each stick, creating a free form lollipop.

Making Cough Drops sans sticks-

Instead of making lollipops, you can of course make regular cough drops. You can purchase cough drop molds or any small mold will work. I used my lollipop mold to try out my cough drops and it worked fine. You could also create free form cough drops just like the free form lollipops. Same instructions apply; pour honey into mold or onto a greased non-stick surface and let cool.

Add Ins-

Now just plain honey is great but you can get really creative with these! I have made cinnamon cough drops as well as a ginger variety. I am also interested in trying herbal cough drops my steeping herbs in the honey (you’d probably want to strain the herbs before making the cough drops) Think chamomile, thyme, or mint. I have also heard of using some essential oils such as lemon or menthol. I’d also be curious to see how a dash of elderberry syrup would do in these cough drops. I’ll have to try that out once I make some elderberry syrup.

Note: Babies under the age of 1 year should not be given honey.