Homemade Jolly Rancher Candies

Homemade Jolly Rancher Candy is sweet, a bit tart, and easy to make. Choose your own flavours and colours to customize it as you like!

Originally Posted November 3, 2009. Updated 1/18/2021

So, this recipe is very similar to my recipe for Candy Apples... well, aside from the apples and citric acid, anyway!

The ingredients and technique for making the candy syrup are mostly the same - it's the addition of citric acid, and what you do with the molten sugar that makes the difference.

There are two main ways to shape your candies - the easiest way is to pour the candy into a baking sheet that's been prepared with butter or parchment paper, then score it when it's still hot, but cool enough to handle.

The second way is to use silicone hard candy molds, such as those you can find on Amazon.

I like to pour the hot candy mixture into a glass measuring cup to pour into the molds, but some people prefer to spoon it.

Either way, have some fun with it, just not TOO much fun - melted sugar burns are no joke!

Some Notes on The Flavouring

Flavour Extract vs Flavour Oil

The flavouring you use is what makes your candy taste like candy... so it will absolutely affect how true to the source material your homemade Jolly Ranchers turn out.

There are two main types of flavouring you can use for your Candy Apples:

Flavour Extract - This is the stuff you can buy at the grocery store, usually McCormick brand. You can usually find some good basic flavours that’ll work - Cherry, Orange, Lemon, Grape, Banana, etc. These don’t taste exactly like Jolly Ranchers, but can be OK if you can’t get flavour oil.

Flavour Oil - This stuff - Lorann Oil is the gold standard - is a bit harder to come by, but can usually be found at your local cake or candy making supply store. It comes in a LOT more flavours than grocery store extracts do, so you can really have fun with it!

We used raspberry, peach, green apple, and grape oils for this batch, and they were all QUITE accurate to the source material!

Note: Flavour oils are MUCH more concentrated than extracts.

Citric Acid

Citric acid is available from home brewing stores, can sometimes be found in canning sections of grocery stores, and is readily available on Amazon - you can buy some here!

A little citric acid goes a long way, so if you’re buying it specifically for this recipe, expect to have a lot left over.

Never fear, there are other recipes you can use it in, right here on the blog!

Homemade Wine Slush Mix, Fuzzy Peach Cocktail, and Homemade Beep Drink are all great ways to use your citric acid!

Colouring Your Homemade Jolly Ranchers

While you can use grocery store food colouring for this, I prefer to use a nice quality gel based colour, such as Americolor (what I used when I was in the USA), or ChefMaster (Which is the option more readily available here!)

You can use the grocery store liquid food colouring if you like - it’ll just take a bit more of it, and the colours won’t be as flexible / accurate.

How to Make Multiple Flavours in One Batch

If you’d like to get more than one flavour out of the batch, divide the citric acid and flavouring into however many flavours you’re making. I like to mix them right in the measuring cups, so they’re ready to pour immediately.

Keep in mind that you need to work fast, and with every extra flavour you’re working with, that’s valuable time you’re losing.

If you’re doing molded candies in multiple flavours, I recommend having a lined pan ready, as your candy is likely to start setting up before you can get it all poured.

It’s good to have somewhere to dump the setting candy, if it’s not going to make it to the mold!

If you’re looking at doing more than 2 flavours from one batch, I highly recommend skipping the molds altogether, and just doing poured candy.

How to Make Homemade Jolly Rancher Candy

Candy Making Preparation

Before you get started with making the boiling sugar mix, you’ll want to have everything in place.

What this means depends on which way you’re dealing with the candy.

Molded Hard Candy

Arrange your molds on cookie sheets or another supportive work surface.

Mix your flavouring and citric acid together with some food colouring, have the mixture in easy reach.

Have a heat safe measuring cup within easy reach - this will help you get the candy into the molds.

Free Form Hard Candy

Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

Mix your flavouring and citric acid together with some food colouring, have the mixture in easy reach.

Make the Homemade Jolly Ranchers Candy

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water.

Stir well, bring to a boil on medium or medium-high heat. Affix candy thermometer to pan.

Boil mixture, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 310 degrees.

Remove from heat, quickly stir in food coloring, flavoring, and citric acid.

Stir mixture until it stops boiling, and most of the “bubbles” disappear – this will minimize texture in your finished candies.

If Making Molded Jolly Ranchers

Pour your candy into a heat safe measuring cup.

Carefully pour molten candy into mold cavities.

Allow to fully cool and harden before unmolding.

If Making Free Form Jolly Rancher Candy

Carefully pour molten candy into prepared cookie sheet. Allow to cool until still very warm to the touch, slightly malleable, and firm (not brittle).

Turn slab of candy out onto a cutting board, taking care not to stretch it.

Using a large knife, score candy slab into rows about 1″ apart. Turn slab 90 degrees, and score again – ½″ for long skinny candies, 1″ for square ones.

Working quickly, cut all the way through the candy slab along the score lines, separating candies into rows, then individual candies.

You will need to have all of your cutting done while the candy is still fairly warm and malleable, or it could shatter when you attempt to cut it.

A Note on Cleanup

The candy will harden much faster than you can deal with it, so expect some cleanup. It’s fun, it makes tasty Candy... but it’s a big mess, also!

Moisture and heat are your friends. Soak everything in the hottest water you can, before washing. This will dissolve the sugar out, and makes it a lot easier to clean up!

A Note on Storage

Hard candy is very hydrophilic – it pulls moisture out of the air, and absorbs it.

This will result in sticky or “sweaty” candy – you’ll want to either wrap them individually, or keep them sealed in an airtight container