Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain · source

Other · From Bladwijzer

Horehound drops

Updated on 10 October 2026

• Makes: ± 500 g of sweets
• Time: 1 hr
• From: White horehound

Ingredients

• 20 g dried horehound leaves (or 2 large handfuls of fresh)
• 600 ml water
• 500 g sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• a little butter or oil for the tin
• a sugar thermometer

Method

1. Bring the water to the boil with the horehound leaves and simmer gently for 20 minutes with the lid on.
2. Strain through a fine sieve or a cloth and squeeze the leaves well. Measure out 400 ml of this strong infusion.
3. Put the infusion, sugar and honey in a large heavy-based pan and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
4. Boil without stirring until the syrup reaches 150 °C (20 to 30 minutes): a drop in cold water then sets hard and brittle at once.
5. Pour the syrup into a greased tin or onto greased baking paper. After a few minutes, score squares with a greased knife and break them apart once hard.

Storing: Wrap them one by one in baking paper or dust them with a little icing sugar and keep them in a tightly closed tin: in damp air they turn sticky. That way they keep for a few months. Careful: hot sugar syrup causes serious burns; keep children away.