Give your family a ‘sweet treat’ this summer! Freeze-dried candy is always a customer favorite and is by far one of the tastiest things your freeze dryer is capable of. Below is a list of some ideas to get you started!
Skittles
Skittles are a fun experiment to try with your freeze dryer. These small, chewy candies will expand to nearly triple their size. Along with this massive size change, they’ll also change textures! The skittles will go from a chewy candy to a crunchy, lighter one! A near complete transformation. These treats also are packed full of flavor once freeze dried. A helpful tip to keep them from sticking to the tray is to use silicone mats or parchment paper. Then break them apart and enjoy!
Saltwater Taffy
Saltwater taffy is the perfect summertime treat, a fun food to freeze dry, and a customer favorite. These candies don’t only taste good, but also look very pretty and have a nice presentation. Saltwater taffy puffs up in the freeze dryer and becomes even sweeter. We suggest you cut taffy in half (or fourths) for bite-size snacking. Make sure to leave plenty of room for taffy to expand.
Jolly Ranchers
Jolly Ranchers are a tasty treat to freeze dry. These hard candies will puff up and become something entirely new. They become slightly crunchy and airy and much easier to chew than a regular Jolly Rancher. If you leave them whole, make sure to leave plenty of space for them to expand. Many customers cut them in half using All-Purpose Utility Shears.
Milk Duds
These candies may not be the first ones you think of when you think of freeze-dried desserts! However, these treats may just be the most exciting. These small, chocolate covered caramels end up going through a complete transformation in your machine. Customers love these puffed up, crunchy candies!
Gummy Bears
Gummy bears are by far one of the customer favorites to try. These small candies grow nearly double their size and become light weight and crunchy. They also become sweeter and have a richer flavor, a definite must-have for a hot summer day.
Tell us which candies have you tried freeze drying in your Harvest Right freeze dryer.
The skittles have been a big hit with the grandkids but my personal favorite is cheesecake bites. I just get a cheesecake from the grocery store (with a mix of different kinds), freeze it, cut it up into bite sizes, then freeze dry. Crunchy and delicious.
Only skittles and peeps, so far. The skittles are a hit with my no-sugar relatives (for which they hate me) Peeps are just for decoration. They look so cute peeking out of the jar!
What temp is high it should be set at?
Can you freeze dry snickers or milky way?
You can, but cut them up, bc they will explode into huge things.
What freeze temp, dry temp do you use for caramels? How long is the dry time?
I use werthers chewy caramel, cut them in half and put it at 145 degrees and warm the trays for 15 min and run for an hour Anda half turn out great
No you cannot because the chocolate melts. We’ve tried but it melted
I just pop the trays in the freezer after drying is done to get the chocolate to set back up. 15 minutes later, pull them out of the freezer and bag up the candy as usual.
have you done jr minutes? if so what temp and time? having a hard time they just melt into nothing.
How are tootsie rolls?
Tootsie rolls are WONDERFUL!!! Have another 400 piece bag of them in the dryer right now.
How long did you dry them for?
How long do you freeze them for? When I run the candy mode it turns them off about 10 hours in then I did the 3 hour drying time (on gummy cherries) and they didn’t work. Do I set my drying time so in total with freeze from start to finish it ends up being 24 hours? I need guidance :/
If you haven’t tried air heads yet I would highly suggest it. I think air heads turn out the best so far. I love them as they are but put into the freeze dryer and they are the closest thing to heaven on this side of the planet.
For how long and at what temp?
How do you make tootsie rolls and gummy bears work. The ones we have tried DON’T puff up????
Some candies need a shelf temperature that is slightly higher than the default settings.
How do you know what shelf life things need?
Just try a different brand of gummy bears, some brands are too dense and don’t do a thing. We have had a lot of luck with the Huer brand. Hope this helps 🙂
I need help with buying a unit
scroll to bottom of the page and hit the financing option.
What would be the reason my jolly ranchers don’t react at all while other things do just as shown…I’m only 2 batches in fyi…any tips?
Sometimes Jolly Ranchers need a little higher temp. Because warm air rises the top tray gets a little warmer than the bottom tray (about 10 degrees). So, if you didn’t put them on the top tray you might try that next time.
We didn’t have any luck with the jolly ranchers until we did the candy mode update. Then they worked beautifully!! Heated the trays up ahead of time and set the temp at 140
My jolly ranchers puff up huge. Are you using the new candy mode ? Have to heat trays to 145 degrees for 7 minites and dry for 2 hrs
If the candy puffs up is it done? How long do I need to let it freeze dry
We love doing rhubarb, after it’s stewed we put it in straight or mix with strawberry yogurt into small silicone molds and freeze then pop them out onto the trays and into the machine. They are wonderful snacks and you can have all sorts of fun with the molds you use.
Sounds delicious
I’ve done nerd clusters with great success but leave lots and lots of room, they swell huge! I’ve also done Junior Mints and love those.
How long did u do the junior mints for?
Bit of honeys are super good too and no risk of pulling out a filling, lol
how long does it take to freeze dry gummies ?
Most candy batches take about 24 hours to complete. In warmer conditions it could be a little longer and in cooler conditions it could be shorter.
@145deg my Machines take about 1hour for skittles longer for gummies
I’ve had great success with Milk Duds, Werther’s caramel chews, and caramel M & M’s. They are all sooooo good!!
Try the wet there soft chews but take them out after 20-25 min into the cycle. It makes a crunchy outer shell on the outside with the Chet cookie like texture on the inside. They are ABSOLUTELY DIVINe! Have to eat them fresh though bc they will deflate.
can you please help? What temp are you setting and how long of a freeze time? I getting no where with these. I use candy mode for all my others and they turn out great in like two hrs. My chocolates and caramels just turn to mush. I would appreciate any help.
Thank you.
Should I have condensation on the outside of my rubber gasket and door? This is my first batch and I can’t find any information regarding water dripping from the gasket. Thanks
Yes, this is normal. It is more often the case in warm temperatures, but has no effect on the freeze dry process.
Make sure you wipe the condensation off before you pull your trays. If water gets in the tray, your batch will be ruined.
I need help with my jolly ranchers. If I raise the temp what do I raise it to?
Use the high temperature candy mode setting. I increase the temp to 150, but it works at 135 degrees and up. Increase your dry time to at least 3 hours and they should work. Best of luck!
There is a huge difference in the brand of gummy used for us. We have used three brands and they all swell to different sizes and consistencies. Nassau(source) wild cherry swells to twice that of Albanese and even more than that with Haribo. Which is best for biggest swell for you all? density and original ingredients obviously have an impact. Thoughts? We do medicated “puffs”
Has anyone here mixed sub straights?
I have freeze dried caramel apple suckers and bit of honey, individual caramels, and peach rings, and they turned out great!
Do jolly rancher gummies work?
Ok so I’ll try to get an answer here as head office isn’t helping.
What temperature should the freezing and dehydrating should be at when doing gummy bears.
As well how long does the batch take to be done.
Every brand of gummy bears reacts different to freeze drying. If you have the newest model of freeze dryer then I would recommend 135 or a little higher.
Has anyone done Hot Tamales or Mike and Ike type candy?
Hot Tamales and Mike and Ike candies do not change (same with jelly beans), they stay the same – even when you cut them up before freeze drying. They don’t puff or change like Skittles, Werthers, gummy bears, etc. do. I think because there’s too much corn starch and wax. The filling is like jelly in those hard shells.
Price and locatiom
You can buy direct from Harvest Right or many Ace Hardware Stores.
What state are you in.
Do I just keep adding dry time of my candy is not turning out like my nerd clusters 1 try did not change at all?
Crank heat up settings to 145f fr dry temp and space 4 -5 apart. Give room for 2-3x expansion. Once trays are loaded go into manual test mode (top left corner) and manually heat up your trays to 100-120 before starting cycle. After few minutes of preheat start cycle as normal however u are going to skip the freezing modes and go right to the dry mode which is right after “vacuum freezing” generally set machine for 2 hr dry time but they finish in 1.39 at most!!!!
About how long and at what temp are you doing caramel apple suckers? I’ve tried several times and no luck.
Has anyone tried Good&Plenty licorice pastels or black licorice twizzlers?
My gummies clump or stick together if they are touching. Has anyone had any luck preventing clumping?
We have tried countless times to make Jolly Ranchers, Gummy Worms and Gummy Bears but ours remain small and still very chewy. (We ran all batches for 24 hours.) We’ve purchased other freeze dried Jolly Ranchers, Gummy Bears and Worms online and they are huge and soft. Can anyone else us understand what we may be doing wrong or could try?
We had lots of failures and mixes successes until someone suggested always doing candy at 145. Now we see more success than failure! And failure is mostly when experimenting with new stuff on just the extra dry time (we’ve done lots of Skittles, gummies, nerd clusters, milk duds, marshmallows on extra dry at 145 with great success). Good luck!
I’m so thankful to have come across this great tip thank you so much for sharing! I can not wait to try increasing the temps for our candy. And trying the extra dry time hack. After so many failed batches I was feeling discouraged. I’ve been coming back to this blog discussion over and over looking for any helpful info. Again thank you
What gummies do you use? We have tried several kinds and we still haven’t gotten any to work.
I used Black Forest organic gummies. They expanded to at least four times original size,so leave a lot of room. I wasn’t aware of using a higher temp for candy, so don’t know if that would make a difference.
I used albanese and a generic from the dollar store. Both rose, but the generic was more dense. They weren’t as fluffy as the albanese gummy bears.
My freeze dryer is 4 or 5 years old. I just freeze dry it without changing anything settings.
Are you using the candy mode upgrade provided by Harvest Right? That was a game-changer for us.
Jolly rancher – cut in thirds.
Gummy bears – use parchment paper & Black Forest gummy bears.
Gummy worms sometimes need extra dry time. Like 4 hours
Can you freeze dry Rolos caramel chocolates
We have. They are delicious!!
Do the candies need to dry at 145 degrees for 24 hours?
With the new candy update candies are done in about 2 hours
Jennifer, ours take about 8-10 hours. We set it on candy mode with the temp at 150. How are you running it in 2 hours? Please help!! Thanks for any input.
Dianne
Which candies ? Any specific brands ?
The easiest way to do most canies fast is the test mode. Load the candy, shut the drain, and go to test screen. Turn on heat and vacuum. When the heat hits 135-140 shut it off and continue to vacuum til you get to the size w
You want. Leave vacuum on and turn freeze on to under 100. I do Carmel m&ms and Charlestown chew rollers but keep the temp at about 125 so all the chocolate doesn’t melt off and cool them to about 60. You can do a batch of skittles in maybe 30 minutes like this.
Does this work with an older machine? I’m brand new to this but have an older machine I got from someone who never used it.
Never mind. I figured it out. I found how to turn the temperature up and had a good batch of assorted candy. Some turned out, some didn’t. I froze them before I read that you didn’t need to. Now I’ve got it loaded with taffy, charleston chews, bit-o-honey, gummy bears and more. 2 stores have not had jolly ranchers. Can’t wait to give them a try.
Does anyone know the secret for Warheads? I have got them to work like twice about a year ago and now for some reason they arent.
Great question! I cannot get them to work either… I put them on a tray with the jolly ranchers… JR’s worked perfect… Warheads… nothin! Anyone have good settings to make them work?
Just did a few batches of ice cream sandwiches, skittles, milk duds, blue gummy sharks, gummy worms, gummy bears, and jolly ranchers. All were pretty good except for the sharks, gummy bears and jolly ranchers. Any ideas on why some candies work and why some don’t? I’m guessing they need to be freeze dried longer since they don’t puff up as much and are still hard/gummy. Thought about doing the same type candies for every cycle, but we’ll see as I’m still experimenting!
We have used the salted caramels that we purchased at Sam’s Club we cut them into pieces because they expand yummy yummy.
What is the new candy mode I’m hearing about? How do I find it on the machine?
You have to get the down load from Harvest Rigjt. Call them or email them and they will send you the link. You can not use a link from another customer
How long should I put in Jolly Ranchers? On what temperature?
How long should I put in Starburst? On what temperature?
How long should I put in salt water taffy? on what temperature?
Hoe long should I put in skittles? On what temperature?
Yup. This info would be helpful. I have a new freeze dryer, medium size.
It would be helpful.
Yes but they get really big and can make a mess I am going to cut them in half and try them that way because we had a huge mess to clean up
We have tried lemon heads several times with no success.
Would someone mind giving us the temp and times you had them turn out successfully?
What temp and extra time do you find successful for Jolly Ranchers and Gummy bears?
Wonder if anyone can help. When I put candy in, it puffs up whilst drying but once I turn vacuum off and drain the valve they deflate. Am I doing something wrong?