If melting and pouring hot sugar isn’t your thing, but you’d love to make your own edible jewels & gems, then this is the tut for you! Instead of melting candy and then working at the speed of light to get it into your molds (and not all over your hands), why not let the candy do all of the work? I have to tell you, after weeks of dealing with crazy weather and endless snow, taking a little bit of aggression out on those little Jolly Ranchers felt pretty good. Felt even better when my smashed candy experiment was a success! Now I have something pretty to look at (and eat!) while I watch the snow fall (again).
Edible Jewels
Supplies
– Jolly Ranchers or Life Savers
– Small zip-top bags
– Rolling pin
– Extra Large Gems Hard Candy Mold
– Pan spray
– Paper towel
Step 1:
Position a rack in the center of your oven and heat the oven to 275 degrees. (I used my toaster oven.)
Step 2:
Unwrap a few Jolly Ranchers and place them in a zip-top bag.
Step 3:
Use your rolling pin to smash up the candy into small pieces. Set the bag aside while you prep your mold.
Step 4:
Spray pan spray onto a paper towel and use the greased towel to wipe the cavity of your gem mold. This provides enough of a barrier to pop the gem out later, but not so much grease that it makes your gems cloudy. Pick up the mold I used here: Extra Large Gems Hard Candy Mold
Step 5:
Fill the greased gem mold with your candy crumbles.
Step 6:
Place the gem mold onto a cookie sheet, then into the oven for 5-7 minutes. As the candy melts, it will spread out and fill in the mold. If the gem is not as full as you’d like, sprinkle in a little more candy and place the tray back into the oven for another minute or so. Just long enough for the additional candy to melt.
Step 7:
Let the gem mold cool on the cookie sheet until it’s easy to handle. Even though these molds are heat-proof, they still get a little wiggly when they’re warmed up. For this reason, you’ll want to wait until the mold has cooled to room temperature before picking it up. This should only take about 5 minutes.
Step 8:
Once the mold is cool to the touch, pop it into the fridge for another 5-10 minutes. This will make your candy gems easier to remove.
Step 9:
Take the gem mold out of the fridge and pop out your gems. They’re ready to go as a glamorous snack, a cake decoration, or cupcake topper!
Your are awesome! Thanks so much for this tutorial! 😀
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Brilliant!!
Thanks! 😉
Hi! What kind of gem mold is that? Mine looks like that too but it’s like plastic… I don’t think I can pop it in the oven… But thank you for the brilliant idea….
There’s a link to the mold in the list of supplies, so you can check it out there. The mold is plastic, it’s just heat-proof to 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Do you remember where you picked it up? Or is there a name brand or mfg listed on the mold?
Would this work with any hard candy or is there something special in the jolly ranchers recipe?
Great question! I haven’t had luck melting rock candy, so I know that wouldn’t really work. After posting this some people have mentioned using lifesavers. I’m going to give it a try and see. I would also guess that peppermint candies would work, since I’ve seen other posts where people melt those to make bowls and things like that. I just went with jolly ranchers because I liked the colors and knew they would melt quickly. Let me know if you give anything a try!
Is 275 C grades ir F?
Great question! I’m in the states, so all of my temp. measurements are fahrenheit.
very informative thank you
This is sooo amazing!!! I’ve been searching for an alternative to isomalt candies because they make u go! I can’t wait to use these for my wedding center pieces thank you!!!!! Do you have any other candy that looks good enough to go in a treasure chest??
I’m so glad this is helpful for you! What other kinds of things are you looking for? You could always add some white sixlets (coated chocolate candy balls) as pearls.
I will try those thanks!!! I’m giving my first batch of gems a shot tonight. I’m using butterscotch discs and following all other directions. I’ll let y’all know how it goes. If tonight is a success I’ll also be doing cinnamon discs and the generic multi flavor ones you get as a mix bag from dollar tree
Could you make these up a week or so in advance and store them in an airtight container? I’d like to make them for a banquet I am doing but don’t want to wait until the night before to make them since I would have so many to make.
Thanks.
Absolutely! I suggest picking up some of those silica gel packets online. You can tape some to the inside of the lid to help keep moisture away from the gems.
Thank you so much for posting this. I am making my daughter a chocolate dragon egg filled with tiny chocolate dragons and some candy gems. I can’t wait to give it a try!
owsm !!! Thanks for sharing !!!
http://www.deesbakestudio.com
Thanks for sharing !!!
http://www.deesbakestudio.com