Semiprecious Candies

I am gearing up for next weekends Bake Sale and have one more item to sell checked off my list. 

I made these cute bags of candy jewels with custom labels to match my Bake Sale flyers. 

Many of you may have seen these in the February issue of Martha Stewart Living. 

As soon as I saw them I wanted to make them. Then for my Birthday my cute Sister-in-law bought me a jewel candy mold without me ever having said a word to her about it. Does she know me well or what. We laughed about it after I opened the present, and she told me how she had called Ryan to make sure I didn't already have it. What does that say about me? So funny that someone would have to check and see if I already have such a specific and unusual item. She was right in asking though, because I was days away from ordering one. 


Martha's recipe for this project failed me though. It made the jewels turn out grainy and cloudy. When my Sister-in-law made them she used isomalt, which she bought from the same online retailer that she bought the molds from and hers turned out perfect.


So with not liking the Martha recipe, but not having enough time to order isomalt I searched for another recipe and found a great one at Chica and Jo . They had wonderful pictures and directions on how to make the candy jewels. It is all about the temperature you heat the candy mix to. So do not attempt to make these candies without a candy thermometer. 

Here is a picture from Chica and Jo that shows just what I am talking about. 275 degrees is the magic temperature that will make your candies look like colorful glass. I still used some of the jewels from my Martha batch, they just don't look as pretty. Chica and Jo's recipe  makes a lot of mix if you only have one or two molds. I simply reheated my candy mixture in the microwave until it was nice and liquidly again and it worked just fine. 

Feel free to contact me or leave a comment if you have any questions about this project. In-fact leave a comment if you think you will come to the Bake Sale.