I always melt the candies, added along with the sugar. A rough estimate - about 1/8 cup of candies to 2 cups of juice.

Depending on the brand, you may need more or less, but that might get you started.

Just Google Cinnamon Red Hots Jelly for lots of recipes. They are added to the pot, not the jars. And the amount is "to taste" - averages 2-3 T.

But if you are talking about adding them to the Pom juice then yeah it is going to b3 an ugly dk brown jelly. The red hots will only make it more brown. If just added to apple juice then it is a pretty "valentine" red.

Dave

I was going to add the candies to apple juice - I have a gallon of organic apple juice from concentrate, no added sugar.

The Pom/Cherry was in a slightly tinted bottle and looked dark purple but when I poured a bit in a glass to taste (it was unsweetened) it was brown. I did have a larger bottle (clear plastic) of a lighter Pom/Cherry so figured we'd make that in case the Grange had already made up the tags (under "Other Jelly" division but I had put Pm/Ch so don't even know if she can do Cinn Apple or if that would be under Apple).

But since the more attractive juice had sugar added, and all I had was powdered pectin, it didn't work out too well. Maybe pectin wasn't all the way dissolved (though DD did stir and looked OK until the end of the pan) but after processing all the jars have varying amounts of something precipitated out and sitting on the bottom. A plate test did show a weak gel after 1 min boiling but I'm not sure the clear stuff at the top of the jars is even going to set - we thought we could scoop it off and use it for ourselves.

So I hope she can enter Cinn Apple under Other - unless someone has other suggestions? Maybe call it Candy Apple? It it really spicy or does it taste like the red candy apples at the fair? And I thought this was going to be easy! She was so excited to enter this year - but there's always the baking contest she had signed up for too.

She's got a birthday party and sleepover tonight so we're going to have to make the jelly tomorrow afternoon.

I used the Candy Apple Jelly recipe which calls for the red hots candies. I believe I Googled Candy Apple Jelly Gardenweb for the recipe. It turned out perfect and tasted really good.

I've found that if I mix the pectin with a bit of sugar, it dissolves easier.

Thanks bcskye, I didn't find it using Search here (and Cinnamon) but I did when I googled Candy Apple Jelly Harvest - and it was the same as I found all over the Web when I Googled Cinnamon Apple Jelly red hot.

The Pom/Cherry did set up - I opened the jars and poured clear stuff into other jars and just put in fridge but unfortunately not quite 3 half pints so tomorrow we'll have to decide whether to use the rest of the bottle (1C or so) mixed with the 2.5 jars and boil it some more (maybe add a little sugar? Won't add any more pectin) and try to get 3 jars or do the Candy Apple. I just don't have room in the fridge for 2-3 quarts of apple juice until we finish the Pom and DH finishes the tomato juice from last weekend.

For anyone looking for recipe, here it is

CANDY APPLE JELLY

4 cups apple juice
1/2 cup red-hot candies
1 (1.75 ounce) package powdered fruit pectin
4 1/2 cups sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large kettle, combine apple juice, candies and pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar; return to a full rolling boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; skim off any foam and undissolved candies. Pour hot liquid into hot jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Adjust caps. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

I BWB my juice if I don't have the room in frig. I'll have to try that recipe, since I've canned up 52 qts of apples so far and still have about 1/2 bushel to go. I'm in the process of finding some wonderful recipes for next year's jellies and jams.

Yes, ajsmama, that's the same one I used only I used Pomona's and Splenda with it. I know, the red hots have sugar in them, but it is an amount we can tolerate. It was a nice bright and clear color and tasted delicious.

We're going to have to try this with the store-bought juice (I've used it before with NS pectin for pepper jelly so I know it will work). Might cut sugar in half since candy has sugar and using the NS pectin - does seem like an awful lot.

Picked DD up from sleepover, she had allergic reaction to something (and they didn't call us, just took her word for it she'd had Zyrtec before and dosed her!) last night. Still puffy eyes and stuffy nose - had her jump in shower ASAP. The mom suggested dust mites but I don't think theirs are worse than ours (and DD does get stuffy itchy nose at night but I've never seen puffy eyes, she even had a few hives on her arm!) so I'm saying it was either cat or dogs.