Tootsie Roll Industries

The milk caramel lollipop that has been sticking to teeth for almost 100 years is an iconic American candy treat. Robert Welch invented the pop in 1925 and originally called it Papa Sucker, a name that lasted until 1932 when it changed to a popular expression of the time, Sugar Daddy. A chocolate-covered version of the pop called Sugar Mama was discontinued in the 1980s, but the caramel jellybeans called Sugar Babies are still found on candy shelves today.

Making a home version of a Sugar Daddy requires cooking caramel from a simple combination of condensed milk, sugar, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla, and bringing it up to a specific temperature to create the perfect hardness when the candy cools. If the temperature is too low, your caramel ends up too soft. If the caramel gets too hot it will scorch, darken, and become too brittle. You’ll want to hit a target temperature of exactly 250 degrees F. and to do that you’ll need a candy thermometer.

One cool part of my Sugar Daddy recipe is the custom technique revealed only here that transforms a pasta box into a perfect disposable lollipop mold. I’ll show you how to make 2 molds out of one spaghetti box for a total yield of 20 pops, and I’ve included plenty of step photos so yours will come out great.

Unlike the real Sugar Daddy, our clone doesn’t contain artificial flavoring, so you'll get richer, purer flavors from the same type of ingredients that were probably used in the original pop invented nearly a century ago before the recipe was tweaked with cheaper and more shelf-stable ingredients.

Find more famous candy recipes here. 

Even though this clone recipe duplicates the tiny bite-size versions of the candy, you're free to make yours any size you like. The technique here is a tweaking of the previous secret formula that was featured in Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes, and it includes several upgrades. I found that more cocoa, plus the addition of salt and butter to the mix improved the flavor. I also found that bringing your sweet bubbling mixture to the firm ball stage 250 degrees F (you do have a candy thermometer, right?), and then stretching and pulling the candy like taffy (fun!) as it cools, will give you a finished product more like the real deal.

Find more famous candy recipes here.