Dried Agar-Agar Candy II

I made this candy this year again.
But I improvised on the recipe.

The first batch that I did, I used 25gm agar strips with 1L water, and the second time around I used 25gm agar strips with only750ml water. The result was........ one less day of sunning. Great news, isn't it?

With 10 days left to CNY, and with this current super sunny weather, you can make it in time. Usually my wet bathroom takes half a day to dry, but these 2 weeks, it dried up after 2 hours of usage.

If you lined the pan with paper, it takes 4-5 days under direct sunlight, but if you didn't line the pan, it'll take 7 days. Like me this time, stupid, idiot, forgot to line the pan. Last year, mine were done in 4 days. Well, you see, the paper is an evaporation tool. It absorbs extra water and moisture from the jelly pieces and helps disperse it into the hot air when the sun hits it.  When I find, how come this year, it took so long to get it done, then only I remembered that I didn't line the drying pan. Luckily I did it early this year.

Dried Agar-Agar Candy II
Fills 3-4 jars of those medium sized red cap cookie containers

100gm agar-agar strips
3L water (12 cups)
800gm rock sugar
600gm sugar
2 tsp of rose flavouring+few drop of pink colouring
2 tsp lemon flavour+few drops of yellow colouring
2 tsp strawberry flavouring+few drops of red colouring
2 tsp pandan emulco

Do not think of reducing the sugar. It is needed for the candy structure to form. And I've never heard of a candy that is not sweet. And this is the mildest in terms of sweetness for dried agar candy that I've ever eaten. It is not meant for you to chow down, but savour slowly piece by piece.
If you just want to try try, cut the recipe by 75%---  25gm agar, 200gm rock sugar, 150gm sugar and 750ml water.


1. Put water and  agar strips into a heavy based pot.
2. Bring to a boil and cover with lid. With low heat, boil until all agar strips have dissolved.
3. Meanwhile prepare 4 baking pans/or any heat proof container. Put flavourings and colour into each pan/container.
4. Put in rock sugar and sugar, cook until everything dissolves. It feels thick, almost like cooked can soup.
5. Divide agar mixture evenly between the four pans.
6. Cut with serrated knife when it has solidified.
7. Arrange cut pieces, serrated side down on a large tray lined with non stick baking paper.
8. Sun dry until a whitish crunchy crust appears. Turn jelly pieces every other day for proper exposure to the sun. Bring into your air-cond room at night for further drying at night.


* Bugs love the lemon flavoured one, just don't know why.
The rose flavoured one lost its colour, dunno why. I used Wilton's pink colouring.