How to Freeze Dry Candy

5 from 5 votes

If you've never tried freeze dried candy, you're missing out! Freeze drying candy changes the shape and texture, and intensifies the flavor!

Prep Time30

Freeze Drying Time2 15

Total Time2 45

Course: Snacks, sweets

Cuisine: American

Servings: trays

Calories:

Cost: $20

Prepare trays by lining with silicone mats or precut parchment paper. If you have dividers, you can use them to keep the candy from sticking to one another. I have these and they were very helpful in spacing out the candy.
Unwrap taffy, then use a sharp knife to slice each piece into 4 pieces. Arrange taffy on tray, leaving plenty room in-between for expansion.
Next, unwrap caramels and use a sharp knife to slice each piece into thirds. Arrange on the tray similarly to the taffy.
Using a large sharp knife, break each Jolly Rancher into 2 pieces. To do this, align knife in the center or the candy then tap once with a mallet. Arrange on a freeze dryer tray, leaving plenty of room for expansion.
Finally, arrange gummy bears on freeze dryer tray with a few inches of space between them or use tray dividers. I've found gummy bears tend to need extra drying time.

Turn freeze dryer on and select Customize. On the next screen, use the up and down arrows to adjust the drying temperature somewhere between 145F-150F. Leave everything else as is and save. On the next screen, select Start.
You should notice High Temperature Mode displayed under the freeze dryer name on the Cooling Vacuum Chamber screen. Cooling the chamber takes 15 minutes.
When the time is up, you will be prompted to "load trays into freeze dryer and close drain valve." You will also notice on the same screen a red bar, which needs to be toggled to the on position, turning it red to green.
Once trays are loaded and drain valve is closed, select Continue. You'll be given an option to Warm Trays, with an option to Skip or Start, I chose to skip. The next screen will begin counting down from 2 hours.
After 2 hours, the process is complete. Open drain valve to vent, then unlock and open door. Check each tray, making sure the candy is light and airy and no moisture remains.

Make sure to keep the sliced taffy pieces separated or they will stick to one another and be hard to separate.
Jolly Ranchers have a tendency to shatter, especially if you need to tap the candy a few times to break it into two pieces. It might take a few tries to apply the right pressure so that you can get a clean break.
Don't forget to defrost and turn off your freeze dryer. I like to empty the water bucket when I'm done so that the next time I go to use my freeze dryer it's ready to go!
You can run up to 5 batches of candy back to back, without having to defrost the freeze dryer, however, some candy may expand more than others (and stick to the tray dividers) if you don't allow the machine to defrost.
I had to add additional time for the gummy bears because they were airy on the outside but still chewy in the center.Since there is no way to add additional time that I know of, I chose "Start New Candy Batch" but reduced the time to one hour.