How To Make Jelly Babies Recipes

BASIC JELLY

Steps:

• Combine fruit and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, mashing occasionally with a potato masher, until fruit is very soft, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to a fine sieve set over a heatproof bowl; let drain without pressing on fruit, 4 hours. Strain again through sieve lined with damp cheesecloth. Measure juice; you will have 3 to 4 cups.
• In a large heavy-bottomed pot, bring juice to a boil. Add 3/4 cup sugar for each cup of juice. Add lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Return to a boil and cook, stirring frequently, 8 to 12 minutes. To test if jelly is done, dip a large metal spoon in, lift it horizontally above pot, and let mixture drip back in. Jelly is done when mixture has thickened slightly and drops of it slide together off spoon in a sheet. (Temperature should register 221 degrees on a candy thermometer.) Skim foam from top.
• Ladle jelly into clean containers, leaving 3/4 inch of headroom. Let cool completely. Cover, label, and refrigerate up to 1 month, or freeze up to 1 year.

HOMEMADE REAL FRUIT JELLY SQUARES

Steps:

• Line a baking dish with plastic wrap.
• Soak the gelatin in cold water for about 5 minutes.
• In a saucepan, mix the fruit juice with water and lemon juice. Stir in the sugar and bring to boil, and then reduce the heat.
• Thoroughly squeeze the gelatin leaves and, one after another, dissolve in the juice-mixture without boiling.
• Fill the jelly-mix into the dish and leave to set in the fridge for at least 5-6 hours.
• For serving, cut into cubes or use fancy cookie cutters. (Tip: spread the cutter or your knife with some oil to make the slicing easier)
• With a pastry brush, coat the jelly with a thin layer of oil and toss in sugar (optional).

HOMEMADE JELLY BEANS

Steps:

• In a large saucepan on medium heat, combine 3/4 cup water, 1 1/4 cups sugar, and gelatin.
• Bring to a boil, stirring regularly to ensure that no clumps of gelatin form.
• As soon as the temperature reaches 230 F, take the pot off the burner - the syrup should still be quite liquidy. This should not take more than 25 minutes. If your syrup gets any hotter than 230 F, it will make your jelly beans too hard.
• Set the pot in a bowl of ice to stop the temperature from rising. If you don't have a bowl bigger than your pot, just fill your sink with ice water and put the pot in there.
• Quickly stir in the juice (or booze) and salt.
• Spray the jelly bean molds with non-stick spray and pour the syrup into the molds. I found that it was better to overfill the molds than to underfill them. The beans that I underfilled a little bit were harder to remove from the molds.
• Let the jelly beans sit for four to six hours, or until the gelatin has hardened. It will still be gummy and sticky.
• Pop the jelly beans out of the molds and transfer them to parchment paper. This part is a little bit tricky. I used a small spoon to dig them out. The great thing is that the beans are very forgiving. Don't worry too much about mangling them when you remove them, as they hold their shapes surprisingly well.
• Lightly dust the beans with cornstarch to help them dry. Let them sit for another few hours.
• To make the outer shell, mix 1/4 cup water, 3/4 cup sugar, and whatever food coloring you like.
• Pour the mixture into a jar along with the jelly beans.
• Seal the jar tightly. Tilt the jar at an angle (like a slide) and turn it in your hand (as you would a doorknob), preserving the angle. The goal is to make a mock version of a tumbler (a tool used for coating candy - that at $700 is cost-prohibitive for the average home baker) that allows the sugar to gradually build up and evenly coat the jelly beans. This step is extremely important. If the candy is not well-coated, it will not have a hard outer shell. Tumble for 10-15 minutes. This, my friends, is the workout portion of your candy making experience.
• Fish the coated beans out of the liquid and place them on fresh parchment to dry and harden overnight.
• Once the top side is hard, flip each bean and allow the other side to dry.
• Admire and eat!