Homemade Jelly Beans Recipes

HOW TO MAKE JELLY BEANS

Steps:

• Combine water, sugar, and gelatin. Place the water, granulated sugar, and gelatin in a large saucepan. Stir to combine.
• Boil the mixture. Place the saucepan on the stove over medium heat. Allow the gelatin mixture to reach a boil, stirring frequently. You'll need to stir the mixture with a wooden or plastic spoon as it heats up. Otherwise, the gelatin granules may gather together and form lumps. Once the mixture reaches a boil, use a wet pastry brush to wash down the sides of the pan. Doing so removes any sugar clinging to the sides and creates a smoother syrup.
• Cook to 230 degrees Fahrenheit (110 degrees Celsius). Insert a candy thermometer into the mixture as soon as it reaches a boil. Continue cooking the syrup until it reaches a temperature of 230 degrees Fahrenheit (110 degrees Celsius). With the stove heat set to medium, this process should take 20 to 25 minutes. Do not allow the syrup to reach temperatures much higher than this. If it does, the resulting jelly beans will become hard instead of chewy.
• Set the saucepan in ice water. Fill a large bowl with cold water and add a tray of ice cubes. Place the bottom of the saucepan in this bowl and keep it there for 5 minutes. If you do not have a large enough bowl, you can fill your sink with ice water, instead. The ice water should stop the temperature from rising any higher.
• Add the juice and salt. Pour the juice into the syrup and sprinkle it with the salt. Stir well to combine. You can use any flavor juice for this recipe. If you opt for a mild flavor, consider adding an extra squeeze of lemon juice to enhance it. Alternatively, you can use liquid flavoring or extracts instead of juice. Since these options are more concentrated, you'll only need to add a few drops instead of the full 1/2 cup (125 ml). You may also wish to enhance the color of these beans by adding a few drops of food coloring to the syrup, but doing so is not necessary since you'll be adding a colorful shell later on.

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!

JELL-O BEANS

Steps:

• Spray inside of bean mold with cooking spray. Place mold, fill side up, on tray.
• Add boiling water to gelatin mixes in large bowl; stir 3 min. until completely dissolved. Pour into measuring cup with pour spout. Immediately pour into mold, filling each bean completely. (Any remaining gelatin mixture can be poured into custard cup.)
• Refrigerate 30 min. or until firm. Tilt mold on slight angle over plate. Using moist fingertips, gently scoop beans out of mold. Keep refrigerated.

JELLY BEAN COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Butter 2 cookie sheets.
• Beat butter and sugars together using an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in egg, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla extract. Stir in flour and oats until just blended. Fold in jelly beans.
• Drop rounded spoonfuls of the cookie dough about 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges are golden, 9 to 10 minutes.