Wow--Linda--this looks like fun--we are going to do this this morning!

Great receipe thinking any flavor kool ade brings alot of things you can use them for later.

ML

I think the dices could be used in muffins or cookies, like gumdrop cookies. Orange will be good. Is there blueberry Koolaid ? I need to look. Raspberry would be good, too.
I did grape, but they are sort of black looking, not the prettiest. Still taste good, though.
Have fun with this. Wish I had more free zucchini. BIG ones.

Thanks LindaLou! It does look strange, but fun.
I can see them in fruitcakes. What do you think?

I don't like citron or the commercially candied fruit, but normally use raisins, dates, maraschino cherries and whatever other dried fruit I have.

Now.........to find some big ol' zukes! Mine just didn't do well this year. Got some bad soil delivered.

Deanna

Deanna,
I would try muffins or something first to be sure they stay firm if that is what you want in the fruitcake.
Here I can't make enough z. candy to have it last to even find out !

Good idea!!! I'll do that, if I can find some zucchini.

Deanna

Do you see any problems with using part sugar and part sugar substitute?

I thought about using Splenda since I am diabetic, but haven't done it yet. Never added Splenda when drying foods. Not sure if it will "candy" the same or not.
Try a small batch and see.

No, it will not act like sugar to candy anything. The reason is it has no carbohydrate molecule that is removed in the process in making it from sugar. They use chlorine to seperate the carbs. You can probably try some honey. High sugar will act almost like salt in that it soaks up moisture after a while. You could try sorbitol, but consume with care as it isnt easy to digest.

I made this and it's good. Now I'm wondering if I could do a few more cups of zucchini after the initial 10 cups based on the amount of syrup that I had left. My DH came home with cherry Koolaid because he couldn't find any black cherry, he said the "candy" tastes kind of like red licorice, I'll be making more I know. Have to keep some put away for the grandkids!

lea,
I did reuse the syrup and found it pretty good, but not quite as flavorful. From now on, if I can get more than the 10 cups of zucchini, I will just cook it all at once in a bigger pan.
Isn't that a fun recipe ? We just love it. My family still likes the black cherry best, but all are good. I still have lemonade to use, but no more free zucchini yet. I keep hoping and praying for some !
Glad you like it, too. My grandson would have eaten it all at once if we had not taken the bag away. I have more made for him to take when I go up there next week.

I made 4 flavors this weekend!
Here's what they look like after drying and shaking with a bit of sugar. The bottom bag is just canned pineapple that I dried (extra room in the dryer).

I agree that you could get at least 12-13 cups out of the amount of juice, maybe more.

They are amazingly similiar to gummy worms or gumdrops.
I plan to use them in fruitcakes this winter!! They will give those "bright colors" without being quite as processed as the candied CARP in the store.

Thanks for sharing a fun recipe, LindaLou!
Wish I had grandkids............................. :-(

Deanna

Deanna,
Those look great. I am so happy you are having fun with this, too. Seems so silly to beg for free zucchini when usually people don't know what to use it for.
I think they taste like fruit snacks. I need to go on a zucchini hunt at the produce markets for some cheap ones.
Hey, the carrot and zucchini muffins are pretty good, too.
Thanks for sharing your picture !!

I just made these last night, using the black cherry koolaid and 12 cups of zucchini cubes. I'm taking them to the grandkids tonight to see if I can pass them off as fruit snacks, LOL.

I brought a small container to the office and not one single person could identify it as zucchini, LOL.

Annie

I'm trying the same thing with my adult daughter! She claims to hate zucchini (childhood trauma, I planted 15 zucchini plants and couldn't bear to waste any....GRIN).
We'll see if she can identify it! Hope she doesn't read this....... :-)

Deanna

Well, not growing zucchini, I listed a "wanted" request on our local Freecycle forum. Just received a box of 8 HUGE zukes, with a promise of another box tomorrow. (Needless to say, I've relisted that we "found" everything we need.)

So, I think tomorrow I will follow Linda Lou's directions of cutting up into worms. Still have questions, though, of those who have already made this candy.

1. Is it quicker, easier, or better to cut up into dices prior to dehydrating?

2. Is the extra sugar on the outside (so they'll be like gumdrops) applied during the drying process, or after they're completely dried?

3. I know that Black Cherry is good, and that Red Cherry tastes like Red Licorice. Linda Lou said that Grape is good, but looks black. Have any other flavors been delicious? Has anyone tried cooking these with Pineapple Juice and the Extract?

4. Storage: Plastic bags, and then (a) Refrigerator, or (b) Room temperature.

Thank you so much -- this is really going to be an odd experience for me. Who knows, though, I may really get into this and start making my own Spice Drops! Now, if I could just find an outlet that sells Licorice Extract I'd be ecstatic!

Kathy

Kathy, use anise extract and I think you will be happy with a "licorice" flavor.

I just made a variation of these candies. It turns out I have a lot of self seeded shiso herb growing all over the yard. I have the green one and also the red/purple one. It is the herb that is used to give a red color to umeboshi plums, and I think it is also used to give a pink color to the ginger in sushi places. I had recently made a tea by soaking the leaves overnight in boiling water and adding a tiny amount of citric acid. The beverage came out in a brilliant pink color, even brighter than kool aid, looks artificial but it is natural... In any case, having heard of shiso candy, I thought merging the two concepts would use all this garden produce for some quick energy snacks...

So I made a very strong bright pink shiso tea (I used about 4 cups shiso leaves in 8 cups water), and mixed it with an equal amount of sugar volume wise. I made a lot more than I had squash for, I only tried 4 cups of cubed squash, just as an experiment. I figure I can use shiso syrup mixed with bubbly water for a soft drink. Also, there is a lot more squash growing in the yard, so I can pick it young or fully grown....

I added the juice of 4 lemons to the mix (8 cups shiso tea and 8 cups sugar), boiled the squash cubes for closer to one hour in the syrup. One reason for that is that they are a hybrid summer/winter squash, so the flesh is firmer than zucchs. Also, I was trying to transfer the brilliant pink shiso color to the squash cubes, but this took a while, and they only got lightly tinged with pink. The drying took less time than the recipe suggests, it was more like 10 hours. However, i live in a hot dry climate. I rolled the chunks in sugar, and they fill a small candy dish. The color is light pink and not unattractive.

The shiso flavor did not transfer enough for my taste, but they are pretty good anyway. I guess this means making the tea even stronger. I would add more lemon juice next time as well. I might try it with a different flavor for the next batch and use the remaining syrup for drinks.

I am thinking green tea as a flavor, since I have instant green tea packets. The pineapple one sounds very good too, but would require a trip to the store.

While weeding the squash patch I find 1 baseball bat sized summer squash and my partner finds 2 more! (one of them actually thicker than an average baseball bat). I did have my eye on the planted black beauties (have still 4 of them coming up, still babies) but these other benign monsters are black beauty/acorn squash hybrids, and they volunteer in spots that are elusive....so we decided to do something 'fun' with them again, and this meant trying more flavors of zucchini candy.

As I suggested a trip to the grocery store for koolaid he presents me with a good assortment of food dyes that we already had around. My eyes and brain wandered/wondered to the garden and the refrigerator....so we came up with these flavors/colors:

Golden citrus:
about one pint of minneola syrup, made with simple syrup (1/2 1/2 water and sugar) and packed with the washed rinds of minneolas. I had this syrup leftover in my fridge from making Minneola wine. Any citrus rind and lemon juice combo should work though. I then added 1 drop of yellow food color and 6 cubes of frozen lemon juice (I used Eureka lemons) which I do in ice cube trays. This flavor came out very good and good use of our citrus too (we live in a citrus micro orchard....)

Green mint:
I used 1/2 and 1/2 simple syrup, but instead of the water I used 2 cups of the strongest mint tea I could make. I harvested a bunch of mint from the garden on the spot (I have too much mint because someone planted it on the ground 16 years ago - always plant your mint in pots!), and poured boiling water on the washed leaves (took stems out). I packed the tea kettle with mint leaves. Let it steep 15 minutes and poured while still hot on the sugar that I had mixed with 2 ice cube size chunks of frozen eureka lemon and 3 drops green food color.

Red cinnamon chili:
Use simple syrup, add 2 iced cubes lemon juice and 3 drops red food color, 6 tablespoons of VERY HOT chili sauce, and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon. The cinnamon flavor transfers a lot more than the chili, and the chili flavor is an aftertaste that leaves you wondering. For the chili paste I used our own ground up pequins and scotch bonnets (he he...I told you VERY HOT).

The rest of the instructions are as above. As far as measurements. I used about a pint of syrup mix for each baseball size squash, but after peeling and deseeding. The total squash chunks/syrup volume was only about a quart. I coated all dehydrated chunks with granulated sugar and I am trying to dry a batch after sugar coating to get them even chewier (the sugar sticks better when they are still moist). When cutting, take into consideration that the chunks dry to less than 1/2 their original volume.

You might have guessed a desire for gold/green/purple (Mardi gras colors used in king cakes). The gold and green are great, the red is a maroon/dark berry color that could be more purple if I used lavender sugar sprinkles. I know I could also use grape kool aid, and might still try it, but the cinnamon pepper flavor is so good! We might let the 2 remaining hybrid squash grow to monster dimensions and make some more for king cake decorations using our leftover syrups.

Well, the end of the zucchini season is near, but we are counting the squash and waiting to harvest the largest bats we can get so we can make some more of the candy! It really turned out very good. It sounds funny to have a couple of grown ups raving about candy, but they do have more of a grown up taste than store candy. Also, they are a nice quick energy fix that we appreciate in our weekly hikes in the local mountains.

Next time I will use a mix of dried and fresh mint to make the mint syrup even stronger, the other two flavors were perfect. We told some family members about these candies and already have requests for the red cinnamon chili ones!

I pulled this thread up to print out the recipe, and Cabrita, your idea of a cinnamon flavor has me wondering if I could use Red Hots, and maybe just decrease the amount of sugar in the recipe?

My kids love gummy worms, fruit roll-ups, etc, so I can't wait to try this on them.

Bonnie

I made a couple of batches yesterday, lime and black cherry. I liked the lime best!

Annie

Good this got bumped!

Annie, nice picture! mine look similar, except cut more in cubes, not strips, and the green is mint flavored, while the dark red is cinnamon chili pepper flavor. We are getting ready to vacuum pack and freeze these two flavors. The next batch will be golden colored (citrus taste) and if we manage to keep some, we can have our own decorations for king cakes. We make several king cakes between epiphany and mardi gras. Filled with marzipan.....hmmmmm

highaltransplant, I think you could use the recipe I posted above, but omit the chili pepper. Using the candy Red Hots might be very good too, experiment and let us know how it goes!

I am intrigued by this recipe and want to try it using those artifically sweetened drink mixes like Crystal light and adding maybe half the sugar. Do you think this would work or no? The flavors are pretty intense.

I finally tried this recipe yesterday. Forgot that a batch uses 2 packs of Kool-aid, so when I was at the store I bought one packet of Black Cherry and one Pink Lemonade. So I have a half a batch of each. The kids and I agree that the Black Cherry is the winner. Couldn't find any lime, and I really want to try making a cinnamon batch next time too.

Have a time saving tip. Use a french fry cutter instead of hand dicing. DH has one that cuts either 1/4" or 1/2". I used the 1/2" cutter, and they came out perfect.

I was wondering if you guys used the dehydrator sheets for making fruit leathers, but I see the grid marks in Annie's picture, so I guess I did it right : )

Bonnie

Don't use the sheets or they will take too long to dry. Here the black cherry seems to be the favorite. I did not make any lime yet.
Bet my grandson would love the cinnamon ones.
I have not tried it with Splenda yet. I don't think it would work to dip them in though, because it seems to melt on things like that.
We now include this recipe in our classes and have samples for taste, too. No one has ever guessed it is zucchini yet.
The love it !

Since you can interchange cucumbers with zuchhini in making pickles could you use cucumbers to make this candy? Right now I have more cukes than zukes.

Sorry, no the cucumbers would not work. Too watery and just not the same.

Can these be dried in an oven?

If you try the oven it will take a very long time. Plus, not very efficient since you would have to open the oven door to allow moisture to escape, put a fan on the side of the oven to remove the moisture, etc.
It takes about 14 or more hours in a dehydrator so it could take a full 24 hours with your oven on and using it that way.
I would not suggest it. Probably cheaper to go to Walmart and get a good dryer. Not that new brand they had that I saw. It was worthless. You need a good fan, heat source, and adjustable thermostat to be used for drying foods. The Nesco brand is good. I forget what kind I saw there recently but it should not be used.

Thanks, Linda. I have a dehydrator, but a cheap Ronco that I bought many years ago. I don't use it much because it doesn't have a heat control or fan(I have to frequently rotate the trays). But, the main reason I was asking is that my neighbor received some monster zukes from her workplace and gave me one. I printed out your recipe to give her, but I don't think she has a dehydrator either.
I might try making the candy with my carpy Ronco, and have a small fan next to it, or set it outside. If it works, I can loan it to her if she wants to try it.

I have been making this since I saw the recipe, I think its a great way to use up those big zucchini that always seem to hide. I used to give them to a neighbor to feed her pigs. Made black cherry,grape,orange, lemon lime (couldn't find lime yet), and the pineapple (canned juice and extract) which is excellent. Definitely look for a dehydrator with a fan and heat control if you are buying one. I have a Nesco American Harvest that works better than the three other brands that I had in the past. I got mine on line, But I bought extra trays at Wal-mart, so they sell them.

Did you guys know today is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day?

Maybe you could attach the recipe for zucchini candy when you leave them : )

Bonnie

Thanks for the recipe. I think it tastes like more like fruit snacks than gumdrops. I posted pics and comments on my blog. :)

http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.com/2010/10/zucchini-candy.html

Here is a link that might be useful: My Mountain Garden Gleanings

Bumping this thread up. Is there an easy way to cut zucchini into "worms"?

"Is there an easy way to cut zucchini into "worms"?"

Depends on what tools you have. All sorts of slicing/dicing/chopping tools available.

A french fry cutter that cuts shoestring fries works perfectly. Various mandoline attachments also work, even an old 4 sided grater can cut strips using the slicer side. But as the recipe points out "worm cuts" are not required.

Dave

I was surprised by the small yield a batch gave. The zucchini sure gets a lot smaller! Of course I did eat a few (many) when I was checking on them and turning them :) I did not get all the seeds removed on a few strips and they were very flimsy after cooking and were not even put onto the drying trays (ate them, too) Guess there are some reasons for my low yield in addition to the tremendous reduction in size from drying.

I doubt anyone who eats the finished product would guess they are made from zucchini. I added a quarter teaspoon of citric acid to the sugar used near the end of the drying time. It made them a lot like the sour gummy treats you can buy. I'm sure these treats are not very nutritious, but it is fun to see how much the zucchini can be transformed with a few readily available ingredients.

I made four more batches so far this year, 2 of black cherry and 2 of blue raspberry lemonade. I want to make a batch of the cinnamon flavored ones, though, my DH would love those!

I just store mine in ziplock bags, and The Princess (my granddaughter) won a blue ribbon at the county fair this year with zucchini candy! Well, she won lots of ribbons, but one of those blue ones were for the candy. She had a container of caramels in there too, it won a second prize.

Today I bought a Crenshaw squash for the first time. It's huge! It's longer than from my fingertips to behind my shoulder and the big end is nearly the size of a basketball. The guy at the veggie stand said some people make pies with them and some make candy from them. Would this zucchini recipe be the candy recipe?

Madonna, I don't think so, as I think the crenshaw is more like a Hubbard or winter type squash. I have seen some recipes where people puree the squash and dry it like fruit leather. I think simmering crenshaw in Koolaid for nearly half an hour would make it too soft, it would just "mush" up.

Annie

Thanks, Annie. I'll just have to figure out exactly how I'm going to use it.