freeze dried candy Freeze Drying

Freeze dried Jolly Ranchers take two

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Yep, freeze dried Jolly Ranchers take two. Lol.

It’s all about the size this time!

That’s right, this time we cut the Jolly Ranchers in half! I thought it was going to be difficult, but using a set of those medical scissors that can cut a penny in half makes it super easy and quick to do. Scroll to the bottom for a video.

After cutting them in half, we did space them out on the trays. These should get pretty big, even being cut in half, so spacing is important. We also put this batch in the freezer before putting it in the freeze dryer. I know, I know, candy mode doesn’t actually freeze anything. However, it’s been insanely humid here lately, and that is seriously messing with how candies come out. Some are taking hours and hours and hours, like the Nerds Gummy Clusters, which took a dang long time!

Just like the first time we freeze dried Jolly Ranchers – read about that here – we put the Ice Queen (Harvest Right Home Pro Medium) in candy mode. No tray warming for these.

I’m really hoping these turn out good. We’re starting them in the evening, which we hope will make the humidity be less of a factor this time. We did run some a few days ago and they were complete garbage lol. Puffed up a little bit, but not nearly as much as they should have. So yeah.. here’s hoping this batch does better!

tropical Jolly Ranchers cut in half on freeze dryer tray

Multiple batches of these came out perfectly!

The freezing thing didn’t matter (we didn’t think it would). However, the racks inside the freeze dryer do matter. Our top and bottom racks don’t do candies well in this humidity. No clue why, they just don’t. And since there’s no full on freeze drying process for these, all it does is dry them, I don’t feel stressed out about only using the three center racks. So that’s what we did and they’ve been coming out perfectly since doing this way. Woot!

How long??

About 90 minutes to two hours is how long these are taking now. We’re doing both the regular Jolly Ranchers and some tropical ones we found, which are super delicious!

Anyway, super happy with these.. but the humidity levels are something to consider when freeze drying things. Humidity can make things take longer, not work as well, etc. And apparently the humidity makes our top and bottom racks pretty much useless when it comes to drying candies lol. Good to know!

Happy freeze drying!!

freeze dried Jolly Ranchers take two - tropical and regular Jolly Ranchers

Cutting Jolly Ranchers in Half

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