Does anyone have a recipe for a hard candy without corn syrup?

I had an old Dutch Cookbook years ago. It had recipes for peanut brittle, butterscotch, and other hard candies without corn syrup. In places like Louisiana if you can't escape corn syrup they sale cane sugar syrup. I use it for my pecan pies. I tried to copy and paste an address or 2 for you, bit it won't let me.. Most of your old books will have recipes that are pre corn syrup. But you will really need to have your ducks in a row. Because cooking with sugar is an art. So read your directions from top to bottom. Then organize your ingredient list and premeasure everything!! Trust me on this. I have burned enough sugar to pave my driveway. Sugars go from soft to brittle relatively quickly and extremely quickly the second you take your eyes off from the pot. And not matter how long you think you have watched that pit, it will boil the minute you take your eyes off it.
Use the best ingredients to get the best flavors.
But if you seriously want to make the best look Gor really old books, 1940 and back to find the best recipes for anything delicious! Everything else kind of are variations of what gas already been done.
Now that said, once you play with a recipe, you will need to perfect it for your taste. Example, when I make chocolate chip cookies, I decrease the chips and increase the walnuts, because that is how I like them. Or you may like pecans in stead of peanuts in your brittle. Or your oven may be a bit different than the lady who presented the recipe. Different pans, etc...elevations...I am not affiliated with C and H in any way, but cane sugar works better in most of my older recipes than sugar beet sugar. It is a cheaper sugar. It breaks down differently and in cakes I can tell there is a slight difference in the texture and moisture content.
One last thought. My mother was an amazing baker. She would tell me that if she found 1 single recipe she liked in a cookbook, then it was a good cookbook. The point is you may need to try different recipes for the same thing that works best for YOU. I hope some of this helps. I have tons of recipes that are 100 years plus old. They are awesome!!

4 cups sugar
4 cups water
1 teaspoon cream of tarter
Boil to 300 degrees
Remove from heat
Add food coloring
1 teaspoon or dram of cinnamon oil or other flavor (NOT extract)
Butter a sheet pan
Pour into sheet pan.
Let sit for an hour
Break apart.
Cover in powdered sugar to prevent sticking or leave uncovered. (Make your own corn free powdered sugar by placing regular sugar in a ninja or other small blender.)

Just as another suggestion I didn't see here; You can add any vinegar you want to the sugar/water mix if you don't have lemon juice or cream of tartar. Any acid will work, and I actually like how the vinegar helps to cut some of the sweetness of the sugar and makes the candy taste more balanced. White distilled or any light flavored vinegar would work well(red can work in a pinch, but it isn't recommended).

Also, as long as you are careful to make sure all crystals are dissolved before bringing the candy up to temp you don't need any addition like corn syrup or acid. They just help make things more fool-proof/easier but aren't necessary. What I do is bring the water and sugar up to a boil, but as it starts to simmer and the sugar begins to melt wipe the sides with with water and a pastry brush being careful to get any stray sugar crystals. Let it come up to a boil for a couple minutes and do another wipe with water/pastry brush. No need to worry about the extra water being added to the mix since it'll just cook out.

Then after wiping it down put a tight fitting lid on for a couple minutes or so to allow the steam to dissolve anything you missed and you should be crystal free.

Hope that helps.

some people (like me) are allergic to corn and all corn products. Try finding candy without it!

I am concerned about HFCS (if you stop eating something for a month and feel better chances are it's the thing you cut making you feel like crap) so I am glad to find instructions to make candy without this modern killer (high fructose corn syrup) Thanks to those who answered without judging. :)

Thank you all for the lovely answers! I am not so much concerned with HFCS, but I would always rather use pure cane sugar if I can help it, also it makes for one less ingredient in my too-full baking cupboards.

I do know about cooking with sugar in general, my favorite buttercream is an Italian meringue, but thanks for all the tips on that as well!

Hi Jessica!
Ahem…you have probably made your candy but I have to say:
No corn syrup? Don’t want to go to the store? Not to worry.
Note: When making hard candies corn syrup is added to help achieve its smooth consistency, a clear, glassy candy. Corn syrup acts as an "interfering agent" in candy recipes. It contains glucose molecules that keep sucrose (regular sugar) molecules in a hard candy syrup from crystallizing. Sucrose crystals will result in a grainy, opaque looking candy.

Regular sugar (sucrose) is two simple sugars linked (glucose and fructose). If you separate them, then you are creating fructose and glucose, the interfering agent needed to prevent crystallization. You can make an invert sugar syrup recipe at home per this blog: http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/05/lollipops-sugar-science-ramblings.html
Invert Sugar Syrup Recipe
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice OR 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Combine all ingredients in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Once it boils, stop stirring and wash down the sides of the pot with a damp pastry brush to remove any crystals from the side of the pan. Allow the pot to boil undisturbed until it reaches 230°F and then remove from heat.
Cool to room temperature and then pour into a heat safe container (mason jars work great). Store tightly covered in the refrigerator, if not using immediately.
Also: there is a retail product = Invertase, found though specialty shops that cater to home candy makers, Or just google Amazon if you want to wait for it.
Note: Honey will soften candy, because it attracts moisture.
Anyway, I don’t have a recipe to make the candy but when I googled "hard candy no corn syrup" I found several links that might have just what you are looking for ;)

Happy Candy Making!!

I agree with Ophelia. Honey is a good sub for corn syrup (aka Karo). All invert sugars (sugar in dilute form) contain just enough acid to prevent the molecules from bonding at opposite poles and therefore re-crystallysing.

It sounds as if the submitter simply doesn't stock corn syrup in her pantry and wants to make candy without having to go to the store first.
It's not really a hard candy, but you can try making honeycomb candy (http://chemistry.about.com/od/foodscienceprojects/a/honeycombcandy.htm) It's a lot of fun, if a bit finicky and can taste a bit like soda if you're not careful... maybe don't try that unless your in the mood for an experiment.
There are a lot of recipes that use honey instead of corn syrup that seem pretty credible if you like the flavor of honey. I found a bunch by searching "honey candy recipe".

I wonder if the submitter is worried about high fructose corn syrup? Corn Syrup isn't the same product. Although it's a very sugary product with high glyemic index--it's not equal to HFCS.

I've made hard candy with maple syrup. I don't have the recipe at hand, but it worked well

The corn syrup is there to interfere with crystallization. When you melt sugar you get a pile of sucrose molecules, which have a penchant for forming crystalline structure around any stray sugar grain or other debris, or when they get disturbed. The simple sugar molecules (fructose and glucose) found in corn syrup act as a buffer for the process, because they get in between the sucrose molecules making it harder for them to link up. You could try adding something to invert the sucrose molecules into fructose and glucose molecules -- cream of tartar or lemon juice are common inverting agents. Or you could use a different invert syrup - pure glucose syrup, agave nectar, or golden syrup would all likely work. The commercial corn syrup available is not the same as the high fructose corn syrup used in food processing, if that makes you feel any better about using it.