Overrun with zucchini?

If you've ever grown zucchini, you know how easily it can take over your life.  We've eaten it fried, grilled, make zucchini bread, eaten it in scrambled eggs.  Heck, I took SIX loaves of zucchini bread to the last pot luck we went to!  Then I heard of something different you can do with it.

Zucchini candy


Yes, really.

I looked up the instructions and it's very easy.  It uses up a lot of zucchini at once, too.

Here's what you do:

You need 10 cups of peeled and cut up zucchini.  You can do them in small squares (1/2 inch at widest point, it said, but some of mine were slightly bigger than that) or long 'worm' shapes.  You do not want to use the part with the seeds, add that to your worm bin or compost pile.

In a big pot you mix 3 cups of water, 2 packages of unsweetened KoolAid (we used black cherry because several places I read all said it was the best) and 2 1/2 cups of sugar.  Heat the mixture until it all of the sugar is incorporated and then add the zucchini.  Bring it to a boil them take it down to a simmer and simmer it for 25 minutes.  Drain the zucchini and then put it on your dehydrator trays and dry at 125 degrees for about 14 hours.  Turn them over and dry them for another four hours and you're done.

Ten cups of zucchini is a lot when you start but when you are done they will all fit in a quart sized zip top bag.  It will be FULL, but they will all fit.  The kiddos really like them, too!

Here is a picture of them in the strainer cooling off enough so I can handle them to get them on the trays:

Here is what they look like on the trays, before we started drying them.

This is what they looked like once they were done.  

The kids really like them, which is a big plus.  They aren't as chewy/gummy as gummy worms, for example, but I like that about them.  I think next time I'm going to try adding an extra packet of Koolaid as I'd like the flavor to be more pronounced, just my taste preference, though.