On Saturday night I read my daughter the German fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel as a bedtime story, which makes Ched Evan’s hotel bedroom look like a Wendy House.
Although only a short fable, it chronicles a catalogue of crime that starts off with four counts of child neglect and abandonment, criminal damage which I think is legal jargon for eating someone’s house, false imprisonment, slavery, theft and finally murder.
After such brutal narration a return to childhood innocence was needed, so on Sunday we made lollipops by combining sugar, corn syrup and water in a pan over medium high heat. Once the sugar dissolved we heated to 295oF/146oC, adding colouring and then spooning the candy into molds that already had the lollipop sticks included.
The children’s legal team might dispute that their client’s Hansel and Gretel were entitled to use a proportionate response to their own predicament, so it could be argued the last charge be reduced to manslaughter, but even still why oh why has political correctness not wrapped its grubby old hands over this one? As children’s stories go it’s just Grimm.
225g Caster sugar
120ml corn syrup
60ml cup water
1 tsp food colouring
Lollipop molds and sticks
