Dried Agar-agar (Jelly) Candy

The sky’s so blue…. Rare.

Not a cloud in sight, the whole afternoon.

It’s so so sunny these days.. that I could wash do 4 rounds of laundry and they all dried up by the end of the day. Usually if it’s sunny at noon, by late afternoon, it’ll rain. But it’s hot and drier than usual. If one round of laundry can dry up in less than 2 hours…. Why not I make some dried jelly?? I’ve never made these before, but I love them.

This is one of the stuff that my brothers and I will rumage for whenever my dad brings back Eid goodies from his Moslem friends. But those that I ate when I was a kid really tasted like candy, lots of sugar. But as I grew up, the candies tasted less sugary and more jelly like. It tastes better this way, less sweet.They are usually made by Malays for Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr , never have I seen a Chinese doing this. It’s one of the ‘must’ goodie for Eid. There are lots of blur recipes online in Malay language, but most of them just state "one packet of agar-agar strips". Hello!!! There are many packing sizes.. 10gm, 25gm, 28gm and 32gm. So, how much is one packet???

I might be the first. First, maybe as a non Malay to blog about dried jelly or dried agar-agar. I’m just assuming cos I can’t google any. I adapted this recipe from HomeKreation. I was lazy to keep the balance of 50gm rock sugar, so I dumped the whole pack in. Actually with more rock sugar, there'll be less of a crust. If u want ur jelly candy to have a crunchy crust, replace some of the rock sugar with granulated sugar, of which ur jelly will be slightly sweeter but you'll have a better crust. Do not reduce the sugar instead, cos it will not give u the structure u will need. Oh yes, do not use real fruit juice to make this. The acid from the fruit juice will not make u a dry candy.

Dried Agar-agar Candy /Dried Jelly Candy Recipe

25gm agar-agar strips

1L water

250gm rock sugar

100gm sugar

1 tsp rose flavouring

½ tsp pink/red colouring

1. Boil agar strips on medium heat (pot covered) until fully melted.

2. Put in rock sugar and sugar. Cook until all the sugars are dissolved.

3. Remove from heat and put in flavourings and colouring.

4. Pour into prepared moulds or in a 9 inch square pan.

5. When set, cut into preferred shapes or remove from moulds and lay them on a tray lined with non stick baking paper or muslin.

6. Sun dry until surface of jelly is dry. Flip pieces of jelly ever few hours so that the drying will be even. I made mine in almost a week. It can take up to weeks, if weather is not good. (picture taken outdoors so that the real crust can be seen)

**At night I bring the jellies into my room, so that the air-cond can dehydrate them.

See how much they've shrunk??------------------>

It's not like a gummy jelly, not sticky at all.

It's got a crunchy crust, a slightly chewy and springy interior.

One word, delightful.

Lastly with these red sweet hearts,

I wish everybody

a Happy Valentine's day.

I love u all, please visit me more often

:)

I'm hoping I'll get that new Sony panaromic camera.... Mike, Mike????