Homemade gumdrops taste so much better than store-bought gumdrops and you can flavor, color, and shape them for any holiday. These Red, White, and Blue Gumdrop Stars are a perfect treat for any patriotic holiday including the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, or Flag Day.
I was inspired to try my hand at making gumdrops when I spotted star-shaped silicone ice cube trays while shopping at Target last week. The cavities in the molds are just the right size for a yummy little sweet treat and I could immediately envision how great the candy stars would look dressed in red, white, and blue sugar.
These homemade gumdrops are made using pectin as the gelling agent which gives them a delicately chewy texture as opposed to gelatin which will make firm gumdrops.
The candies have a wonderfully soft chewy texture and can be flavored with your favorite flavorings like cherry, blueberry, pineapple, and green apple.
So, let's make some gumdrops!
Ingredients
Ingredients:
vegetable oil
powdered fruit pectin (do not use low or no sugar pectin) - You want pectin that is white or clear looking. I used Sure-Jell for this recipe. Pectin made my Ball has a brown hue to it, so I don't suggest it for this project.
baking soda
sugar
light corn syrup - Adding corn syrup prevents crystallization.
flavored oil or extract
optional, food coloring
colored sanding sugar - You can keep your candy clear and roll them in colored sugar or you can color your candy and roll them in plain white granulated sugar. I used bright red and blue sanding sugar and really love how vibrant the stars look.
Supplies
silicone molds, you'll need 4-5 of the star-shaped ice cube trays
optional, food handling glove to help with oiling your molds
1 ½ or 2-quart saucepan, preferably a good quality stainless steel pan
2 or 3-quart saucepan
candy thermometer
glass bowl with a spout or a glass mixing bowl
Instructions
Grease the ice cube tray.
These ice cube trays were very stiff so I grease them so the homemade gumdrops could be removed easily.
If you use a softer silicone mold, you do NOT need to grease the mold.
Brush vegetable oil all over the cavities of your silicone mold. I found it easiest to put on a food-handling glove, dip my finger in some oil, and rub it into the star cavities. You could also use butter, and I think I'll try that next time.
Heat the water, pectin, and baking soda.
Butter the sides of a heavy 1-½ or 2-quart saucepan. Set aside.
In another 2 or 3-quart saucepan combine water, pectin, and baking soda. The mixture will be foamy.
Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat the corn syrup and sugar.
In the buttered saucepan pour the corn syrup into the bottom. Sprinkle sugar in the center of the pan. Turn the heat on medium-high and allow it to cook for one minute. Then stir gently to dissolve sugar.
Be careful not to splash the sugar crystals onto the side of your saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
This took me just a few minutes, but the recipe says it can take up to 10 minutes.
Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of your pot. Cook until the thermometer registers 260 degrees Fahrenheit. You will continue to cook your sugar (ultimately you'll want it to reach 280 degrees which is the soft crack stage,) but at this point, you need to set your pan of pectin mixture back on the stove and heat it over high heat until it comes to a boil.
Combine the two.
Once your pot of boiling corn syrup/sugar reaches 280 degrees remove it from the heat or turn off your gas. Slowly and VERY CAREFULLY drizzle in the hot pectin, stirring slowly yet constantly.
You DO NOT want to splash any of this hot boiling sugar on your hands. Once all the pectin has been poured into the saucepan, return it to medium-high heat and cook it for one more minute, then remove from heat and pour into a glass bowl, with a spout, preferably. This stops it from continuing to cook.
To flavor your gumdrops, add some flavored oil or extract, ¼-1/2 teaspoon if flavoring the whole batch. To check if you like the flavor, fill a glass with ice water, take a small spoonful of your hot gumdrop mixture, and set the spoon in the ice water.
Let it set for at least 30 seconds. Remove it and touch it to make sure it is cool. Return to water, if too hot. Taste it. Adjust your flavoring accordingly.
Optional: You can divide your batch and use various flavorings if you prefer. You can also add coloring now if you'd like. A grocery store variety of food coloring will work fine. I left mine clear and used colored sugars and was very happy with the result.
Pour into the molds.
Carefully pour into the silicone mold, filling each cavity to the top. Let sit at room temperature for at least 6 hours for best results. I pulled a few stars out after just a few hours, and they looked like stars but flattened out a bit.
Those left in the mold overnight, looked perfect when removed the next morning. You can see the blue star second from the right below was pulled out too soon.
Unmold and coat the gumdrops in colored sugar.
To remove your gumdrops from the silicone molds, press firmly all around one of the stars then peel the candy out of the mold.
Coat it in colored sanding sugar or granulated sugar.
Let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before packaging.
Package in festive Fourth of July pails, boxes, or bags, or simply set them in a candy dish and enjoy.
If you're looking for other 4th of July Recipes, click the link and explore all my other Independence Day-inspired food.
Related Recipes
You can make gumdrops in lots of different shapes.
If you prefer to make a firmer candy, check out my Gummies Recipe.
Recipe
Make soft and chewy fruit-flavored gumdrops using star-shaped silicone molds. These red, white, and blue candies will make a fun treat for 4th of July.
- ½ teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon butter
- ¾ cup water
- 1 box (1.75-ounce) powdered fruit pectin (original not low or no sugar pectin)*
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon flavored oil or extract
- red and blue food coloring, optional
- ½ cup granulated sugar or colored sanding sugar
-
Brush a thin layer of vegetable oil all over the cavities of your silicone molds.
-
Butter the sides of a heavy 1-½ or 2-quart saucepan. Set aside.
-
In another 2 or 3-quart saucepan combine water, pectin, and baking soda. The mixture will be foamy.
-
Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and set aside.
-
In the buttered saucepan pour the corn syrup into the bottom. Sprinkle sugar in the center of the pan. Turn the heat on medium-high and allow it to cook for one minute. Then stir gently to dissolve sugar.
-
Be careful not to splash the sugar crystals onto the side of your saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
-
Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of your pot. Cook until the thermometer registers 260 degrees Fahrenheit. You will continue to cook your sugar (ultimately you'll want it to reach 280 degrees which is the soft crack stage,) but at this point, you need to set your pan of pectin mixture back on the stove and heat it over high heat until it comes to a boil.
-
Once your pot of boiling corn syrup/sugar reaches 280 degrees remove it from the heat or turn off your gas. Slowly and VERY CAREFULLY drizzle in the hot pectin, stirring slowly yet constantly.
-
You DO NOT want to splash any of this hot boiling sugar on your hands. Once all the pectin has been poured into the saucepan, return it to medium-high heat and cook it for one more minute, then remove from heat and pour into a glass bowl, with a spout, preferably. This stops it from continuing to cook.
-
To flavor your gumdrops, add some flavored oil or extract, ¼-1/2 teaspoon if flavoring the whole batch. To check if you like the flavor, fill a glass with ice water, take a small spoonful of your hot gumdrop mixture, and set the spoon in the ice water.
-
Let it set for at least 30 seconds. Remove it and touch it to make sure it is cool. Return to water, if too hot. Taste it. Adjust your flavoring accordingly.
-
Optional: You can divide your batch and use various flavorings if you prefer. You can also add coloring now if you'd like. A grocery store variety of food coloring will work fine. I left mine clear and used colored sugars and was very happy with the result.
-
Carefully pour into the silicone mold, filling each cavity to the top. Let sit at room temperature for at least 6 hours for best results.
-
To remove your gumdrops from the silicone molds, press firmly all around one of the stars then peel the candy out of the mold.
-
Coat it in colored sanding sugar or granulated sugar.
-
Let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before packaging.
*NOTE: You want pectin that is white or clear looking. I used Sure-Jell for this recipe. Pectin made my Ball has a brown hue to it, so I don't suggest it for this project.
I used a gas stove and All Clad pans which conduct heat really well. It took my sugar much less time to boil to a temperature than called for in the original recipe. So, be sure to watch your thermometer, instead of using time as your guide.
Just a note before you begin: I used a gas stove and All Clad pans which conduct heat really well. It took my sugar much less time to boil to a temperature than called for in the original recipe. So, be sure to watch your thermometer, instead of using time as your guide.
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Sandra says
Do these gumdrop have the actual texture of gumdrops? I am kinda skeptical because I have tried other gumdrops recipes in the past and I ended up disappointed with how they turned out because they didn't quite have the texture of an actual gumdrop.
Beth says
These gumdrops are the best homemade version I have tried but they are a bit softer than store-bought gumdrops. They have a really nice chew but if you want them to be really chewy and sticky then you could possibly heat them to a higher temperature to achieve that texture.
Hidayah says
Hi can u pls help me,my gumdrops get moist when I coat them abd the sugar rolls off what am I dng wrong?
Thank you
Beth says
I am so sorry, but I'm not positive why the sugar wont stick. I've not ever had that trouble, and I've made this recipe many times. My only thought is that you put too much oil in the mold and the gumdrops are oily. If that is the case, try patting them dry with a paper towel. That might help. I hope you can get them to work.
Hidayah says
Hi I made gumdrops they are perfect but when I coat them
sonia says
Hi, i thought you might like to chk out the pic of these gumdrops which I made using your recipe.
http://egglessbakingtreats.blogspot.in/
Bye and thanks again
Beth says
They look great, Sonia. Thanks for sharing.
sonia says
thanks a lot for taking the trouble to answer my query. But morning itself I looked up the net to chk how much of 1.75 ounce of dry pectin is in tbsp. it said (http://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_tablespoons_in_1.75_ounce_of_dry_pectin) that 1.75 ounce of dry pectin is 6 tbsp so I added more pectin, heated the whole mixture together till thick and guess what? it set beautifully within 1 1/2 hrs. Lovely yummy orange gumdrops. looks fabulous too. I really have to thank you anyway for answering my query and for this recipe. thanks once again. just one last query, last time I made hard candy it was hard and crunchy for couple of days. after that it started losing its texture and became a bit soft. what could be the reason?
Beth says
Oh, I am so glad it worked! That is great to know that the gumdrops can be reworked and will firm up. I hope you enjoy them:)
If hard candy softens over time it could be that it is stored in a hot or humid place. It's best to store it somewhere cool and dry. If you don't have air conditioning and you make the candy in the summer, that can be a problem. In the winter, be sure the candy is not near a heat source or the candy will begin to melt. If neither of these is the case, then the candy might not have gotten cooked to a hot enough temperature. You might need to check your thermometer. To check it, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, put the thermometer in the water and it should read 212 F (100 C.) If it does not then your thermometer is not accurate. Some can be adjusted, but some candy thermometers can not. Just look to see if your thermometer is too high or too low, then make adjustments when you are cooking based on that.
I hope that helps.
sonia says
thanks. Actually I kept the hard candies in a box in the kitchen. Since it is summer here, it is super hot. I don't have a candy thermometer. I prefer the cold water test. Thanks .
Beth says
Hard candy can definitely melt in the heat, so I'm sure that is what happened.
sonia says
and lemme clarify . i measured 49 grams of pectin by using standard measurement spoon ( 1 tbsp is 15 grams ). I simply multiplied and had 49 grams.
Beth says
Hi Sonia,
I'm so sorry your gumdrops did not work and that I didn't look up the conversion to teaspoons for you. I assumed you'd use the gram measurement, as most of my readers outside of the US do. Now I wish I had. When I looked at a conversion chart for teaspoons to grams it says that 1 teaspoon equals 5 grams not 15 grams, so you would need 10 teaspoons of pectin for this recipe. The reason your gumdrops did not set up is that you needed 2/3rd more pectin for the recipe. I have no idea why, if using less pectin, you would have needed more water. I've made this recipe several times and when I've added the pectin to the 3/4 cup of water, and heated it up, it melted easily and turned into a liquid quickly. The only thing I can think, is that the pectin, you are able to get, is somehow different than what we have here in the states. We have a few different types of pectin and I mention in the recipe that you don't want to use the No Sugar Added Pectin because that wont set correctly. I'm not sure if that type of pectin would clump up when mixed with water.
I know this would be a mess, but it might be possible to reheat your gumdrop mixture and add more pectin. I've not ever tried that, but I have had to reheat hard candy before and was able to get that to work. You'd have to scoop out the candy and put it back in a sauce pan, heat it up a bit, stir in the extra pectin then bring it back up to 280 degrees Fahrenheit again. Being you added a bit of extra water, you might even want to add an extra few teaspoons of pectin to be safe.
I wish you luck, and do hope you can get this recipe to work for you.
sonia says
Thanks Beth. I tried this recipe yesterday and still today it is still liquid. what happened was i tried this recipe using 49 grams of pectin but the water amt was insufficient. the whole thing turned into a bit of a lump so I added more approx 1/4 c up or so water to make it liquid. and had to strain it coz there were few lumps which diodn't go away when I heated the mixture. and now my gumdrops are not setting. pls help. what do i do? what did i do wrong? thanks
sonia says
hi, i want to try out this recipe. i just bought a pack of pectin. Could you pls tell me how much of pectin you used in tsp or tbsp or grams? Back home we have a diff measurement that is why I am asking. pls let me know ASAP as I would love to try out this recipe. thanks once again.
Beth says
Hi Sonia, I used a 1.75 ounce package of pectin and that is equivalent to 49.6117 grams. Enjoy your gumdrops. I haven't made any in a while, but now I have a craving for them:) I just might need to get into the kitchen and try them again.
Katherine Burns says
What brand of pectin did you use? I just made two batches of this recipe (haven't tasted yet but so far so good!) and my pectin mixture was a brown-ish color and made the entire batch an off-orange color and it smelled quite potent. I'm hoping it doesn't override the flavor of the oils I used or the color.
beth says
Hi Katherine, I used Sure-Jell brand pectin to make these, but later on tried Ball brand pectin. The flavor of the Ball brand was perfectly fine, but it did have a brownish color to it. At the time I was making ghosts and was hoping for clear gumdrops, so I had to add some white coloring to the mixture, which actually looked great. I mentioned this in the Gumdrop Ghost post, but didn't think to come back and mention it in this post. I'll do that now. I'm sure your gumdrops will taste great!
Taylor Urban says
thanks for linking up to Moonlight and Mason Jars! We featured you tonight!
thanks!
taylor
www.itstaylormade.com
beth says
Thanks, so much! I appreciate the feature.
Lita says
This is a clever use for those ice cube trays. My grandkids will love these. Their mother may shoot me after all the sugar. 😀
Thanks for sharing at Saturday Dishes.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda @ Tumbleweed Contessa
Anonymous says
Instead of dipping them in sugar,can you dip them in chocolate?
Beth Jackson Klosterboer says
Yes, I had never thought of doing that, but that is a great idea.
Lady Behind The Curtain says
CONGRATULATIONS!!! Your recipe is on Today's Feature Post from Cast Party Wednesday! http://www.ladybehindthecurtain.com/?p=31138
Thanks for sharing your recipe with us!
---Sheryl @ Lady Behind The Curtain---
Beth Jackson Klosterboer says
Thanks so much Sheryl. I'm so happy you like them!
Nicole {WonkyWonderful} says
I've been noticing your gumdrops around the link parties and came to check them out. They look sooo yummy and all your food pics look amazing! Have a great Independence Day 🙂
Recipes We Love says
Wonderful idea and I actually bought those ice cube trays at Dollar Tree!!!
Diane {Created by Diane} says
cute, cute, cute! I shared on Pinterest. Let me know if you're on there or FB, I looked around but didn't see any social networking buttons on your site?
Beth Jackson Klosterboer says
Thanks Diane. Yes, I have a Hungry Happenings Facebook page. There is a "like" button on the right hand column on my blog page. You can also sign up for RSS feed and e-mail, all of which have buttons in the right hand column.
The Better Baker says
Would just love for you to bring this amazing recipe to our Patriotic Weekend Potluck. It's open for 'business'....http://www.thebetterbaker.blogspot.com/2012/06/microwave-corn-on-cob-weekend-potluck.html
The Better Baker says
Congrats on being featured at Mix it up Monday! You certainly deserve that attention. Gotta get me some of those ice cube trays. =)