Fill your Easter baskets and candy dishes with these cute homemade sour Easter gumdrops. These brightly shaped Easter candies are shaped like bunnies, eggs, carrots, and chicks and coated in sour sugar.
If you have never tried homemade gumdrops, you definitely should! There is no comparison to store-bought gumdrops and homemade gumdrops. They are soft and delicately chewy, not sticky.
Plus you can flavor them using any candy flavoring oils you like. So if you enjoy green apple or pear or peach or even bubble gum you can use those flavors.
My favorite is green apple and I love to give my candies a little sour punch.
To add a sour flavor to your candies you can toss your sugar with citric acid powder then roll the gumdrops in the sour sugar.
You can also color your sugar using food coloring. Just toss some sugar in a small zip-top bag, add a few drops of liquid food coloring, and toss and knead the coloring into the sugar.
These gumdrops are made using pectin so they have a nice soft texture unlike gumdrops made using gelatin. Be sure not to use low sugar or no sugar pectin. Those will not work in this recipe.
I highly recommend you have a candy thermometer or my favorite instant-read thermometer, a Thermapen in order to make this recipe.
I left these gumdrops clear then coated them in colored sugar. If you are making a full batch of one Easter shape then you can add food coloring to the candy mixture if you want your candies to be colorful all the way through.
Recipe
You can find the recipe to make
these sour Easter gumdrops at Dixie Crystals.com.
You can find tutorials and recipes to make these other homemade gumdrops, here.
If I wanted to add food coloring to the mixture, drops or gel and how much? thanks!
I would use liquid food coloring to color the gumdrops. The number of drops will depend on the color you use. Start with a few drops, then add more as needed. Also note that some brands of pectin are fairly clear while others are a bit more tan. That will also affect the color of the candy.