freeze dried candy Freeze Drying

Freeze dried Skittles

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Freeze dried Skittles are awesome, so I’m making more 🙂

We call freeze dried Skittles by a different name – BRITTLES!

Skittles is trade marked, hence renaming them Brittles. We do plan to sell some, so had to come up with a new name 🙂

I’ve made freeze dried Skittles before (read about them and other candies here), but now I’m making them again because they’re good. I plan to give some to family and friends, and also try to sell some. It would be great if I can sell them and start making some money with this freeze dryer!

The Ice Queen (Harvest Right Home Pro Medium) has a Candy Mode. I used Candy Mode to freeze dry these Skittles. The candy only takes a few hours to make, each batch of the Skittles took 3 hours to turn into Brittles. Such a quick process, so we spent an entire day just running batches of Skittles through the machine.

Skittles on freeze dryer trays before going in

Candy Mode – Harvest Right Home Pro Freeze Dryer – The Ice Queen

Candy Mode is such a wonderful setting on the freeze dryer! So the Candy Mode actually runs during the Extra Dry Time. To use Candy Mode, follow these steps:

  1. On the Home Screen of the freeze dryer, select “Customize.”
  2. Modify the settings on the Customize screen as follows (these are the setting I use, you can change them to be whatever you’d like):
    • Initial Freeze: -10F
    • Extra Freeze Time: 1:00 (this is one hour)
    • Dry Temp: 150F
    • Extra Dry Time: 3:00 (this is three hours)
  3. Press the “Save” button. This will take you back to the Home Screen.
  4. Without loading trays yet, press “Start” to begin. This will kick off the chamber cooldown, which takes about 15 minutes.
  5. Once the freeze dryer chamber is cool, a little slider will show on the screen for the “High Temperature Mode – Candy Process” – this slider will be turned off by default. Press it to turn Candy Mode on.
  6. Load the trays of candy.
  7. Close the drain valve.
  8. You will then see “WARM TRAYS” on the screen. Some candy does very well being heated up first, some does not. Aside from searching around and reading what others have done, this is really just a trial and error thing. In general, most candies will expand more if they are heated more. You can do the following from this screen:
    • Cancel – this will cancel the entire process and take you back to the Home Screen.
    • Skip – this will skip the tray warming process and move on to the drying process.
    • Start – this will start the tray warming process. The default tray warming time is one (1) minute. This can be increased using the up and down arrows on the WARMING TRAYS screen (up to 20 minutes). You can also cancel tray warming from this screen.
  9. The freeze dryer will run your batch of candy for the Extra Dry Time you set in Step 2. This amount of time can be modified while the batch is running by pressing the up and down arrows on the screen.
  10. Once the candy is finished, you will be taken back to the Home Screen. Here you will have three (3) options:
    • No defrost – choosing this option will finish the batch without defrosting.
    • Start New Candy Batch – this will immediately begin a new batch of candy, maintaining all settings.
    • Defrost – this will defrost the chamber.
    • NOTE: The freeze dryer usually does not need to be defrosted after every batch of candy, as most candy has very little water in it. If you have lots of candy you’d like to freeze dry, making it a “candy day” is a great idea! That way, you can just continue pressing “Start New Candy Batch” over and over, running various candies through, until the ice on the sides of the chamber starts to really pile up. In general, I’ve gotten 4-6 batches of candy per day, just running it during the hours I’m awake.
  11. Enjoy your candy!
Candy Mode on the Ice Queen Freeze Dryer

The Brittles (freeze dried Skittles) are awesome – duh! 🙂

These turned out great! Just like the first time I made them. They’ve got a fantastic crush, retain the same flavors as normal Skittles, and they look rad.

How long did the freeze dried Skittles take?

For candy, you do not pre-freeze them – they just go in the freeze dryer as they are. I did go ahead and warm the trays, but only for the default one minute. Then the process moved along to the Extra Dry Time, which I set for 3 hours for the Skittles. After the 3 hours, I had BRITTLES! Lol

I ran four batches through before needing to defrost. I spent the day doing only Skittles, creating our awesome Buck Hills Farm Brittles 🙂

Freeze dried candy really is super simple to make. If you decide to do it, try out various candies, experiment with warming or not warming trays, and just have fun with it!

Happy freeze drying!!

freeze dried Skittles, which we call Brittles

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