Homemade Horehound Candy - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 cups horehound leaves (packed)
1 1/4 cups water
4 cups dark brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup

Preparation

Wash horehound leaves and put in saucepan. Add water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, mashing occasionally with fork. Remove from heat; cover and let cool (needs to stand at least 1/2 hour to infuse.
While infusion in cooling, butter a 9x13 pan.
Drain horehound leaves into measuring cup (I use a coffee filter to strain it). Be sure to squeeze all the liquid from the leaves. Make sure you have at least 1 cup of liquid. Discard leaves.
Pour liquid into a 4 quart saucepan. Add brown sugar and syrup. Bring to a boil and cook to 300 degrees on a candy thermometer (hard crack stage).
Pour into prepared pan and let cool. Just before it sets up, score into squares with a knife to make it easier to break apart. When cool and set, break into pieces and store in airtight container.
Note: The infusion (liquid from the leaves) can be frozen to use later.