Readers, I owe you an apology. I kinda dropped the ball on National Gumdrop Day & you all know how I feel about any type of food holiday! Well, even though gumdrop day was Thursday, I’m still going to keep the gumdrop hope alive anyway!
Have you ever made your own gumdrops? Chances are you haven’t, and to tell you the truth I’ve never attempted the task myself. About.com has just about everything you could possibly want to know, including this How to Make Your Own Gumdrops recipe. It looks fairly easy & pretty quick to make. This particular recipe is for Orange Gumdrops, see below for Grape & Apple-Cherry recipes. You try it & I’ll try it & we’ll see where we stand Monday, k? Enjoy & best of gumdrop luck!
Ingredients:
- Vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1 package (1-3/4 ounces) powdered fruit pectin
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 drops red food coloring, if desired
- Sugar
What’s Next:
Line loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches, with aluminum foil. Brush with oil. Heat 1 c. sugar and the corn syrup to boiling in 1-1/2 quart saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved. Cook, without stirring, to 280 degrees F. on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard but not brittle threads.
While cooking sugar mixture, heat orange juice, pectin and baking soda to boiling (mixture will be foamy) in 2-quart saucepan over high heat, stirring constantly; reduce heat.
Slowly pour hot sugar mixture in a thin stream into orange juice mixture, stirring constantly (this should take 1 to 2 minutes); remove from heat. Stir in food color. Let stand 2 minutes. Skim off foam.
Pour mixture into pan. Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature 24 hours. Lift foil from pan and remove foil from sides. Cut into 3/4-inch squares with knife dipped into sugar. Roll squares in sugar. Let stand uncovered at room temperature 1 hour. Store gumdrops in airtight container. About 72 gumdrops. 28 calories per gumdrop.
Grape Gumdrops: Substitute grape juice for the orange juice and blue food color for the red. 28 calories per gumdrop.
Apple-Cherry Gumdrops: Substitute apple-cherry drink for the orange juice and use red food color. 28 calories per gumdrop.