February 2: Games and Gummi Candy

Today is a snow day over here so both Seth and Koen are home from school!  As the snow and wind swirl outside, the boys and Seth played tag, duck-duck-goose, and some racing PlayStation games.  The boys love their time with their Daddy and their Daddy loves spending time with his boys! 

Koen spotted the candy molds last night and asked to make more gummi candy...a perfect snow-day activity.  We first made this recipe last June and ended up with more than enough grape gummi candies (see post from June 29).  Today, I decided to make a half-recipe using the lemon jello we had in the house.  I didn't get a chance to link to grkids.com where I first saw it (now I can't find it there) or post the recipe last time so I'll include that with this entry.

Gummi Candy
Ingredients:
6 pouches of Knox gelatin
2 boxes (same flavor) of 3 oz. Jello (not sugar free!) 
2/3 cup PLUS half of a 1/3 cup of water

Equipment:
A medium Pyrex measuring cup...ideally with a pour spout  -- be sure it's glass!
A pot large enough to fit the Pyrex cup
Candy Molds (We got our set at Michaels)

Measure the water and pour it into the Pyrex cup.


Stir, stir, stir!



SLOWLY add all the Knox and Jello stirring the mixture thoroughly.  Cover the Pyrex cup and let it set for 10 minutes.  While you're waiting, put some water in the pot and start heating it.  It should be almost boiling when the 10 minutes is up.  Your mixture should look a little gritty.

Carefully place the Pyrex cup into the pot of boiling water.  Stir frequently.  You want to MELT the mixture, NOT boil it!  Constant stirring will help keep it from boiling.   



When the melting is done, it will be totally liquid...thinner than the original mixture, but not watery.  You may get a little foam on the top and that's OK. 

Are they ready to eat yet?

When you're finished melting the mixture, have your molds laid out on the counter and pour the mixture in.  No need to grease the molds, the candy comes out easily.  This is when the Pyrex pouring spout really comes in handy!  Be sure you have a number of molds ready as this mixture makes A TON of candy!!!  (That's why we made a half batch this time.)

Place the filled trays in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to help the candy set (we needed to do this in the summer, not in the winter with a cooler temp in the house).  Pull the candy out of the trays and enjoy!  Store in an air tight container in the fridge.