I Like Making Candy

So far I've tried Caramel candy, Marshmallows, & Divinity (failure)...so when I saw Lynn post a recipe for Fruit Delights - I had to give it a try. I can't remember ever trying these before meeting my boyfriend. When we first met, he said his family used to eat these Liberty Orchard fruit delights during the Christmas holidays. He gave me a box one year. So as a fun little surprise, I thought these would make him nostalgic.
I really want to try the recipe using Pectin, I found powder pectin & liquid pectin, I want to use the powder one, but need to figure out how to convert it to a liquid equivalent. These were really chewy, they remind me more of gummy worms/bears than fruit delights (maybe since I messed with the sugar). I'm guessing the pectin texture will be more similar to Liberty Orchard's. The candy was a bit sweet for my personal preference, although I did reduce the sugar to 1 1/2 cups - I want to reduce it more, but am unsure how it will affect the end result. I'm always trying to reduce sugar, since it helps me feel a little less guilty when I overindulge. For the "raspberry juice", I simmered down about 1/4 cup frozen raspberries in a small amount of water. I strained out the seeds & reserved the thick red nutritious liquid.

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Raspberry-Lime Delights
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup raspberry juice/liquid
2 tblspns cold H20
1 tblspn fresh lime juice
2 tblspns gelatin

2/3 cup H20
1 1 /2 cups sugar

Zest of one lime

Powdered sugar

• Lightly oil an 8X8 glass pan. I lined the bottom with parchment paper. Scatter around the chopped nuts & set aside.
• In a small bowl, combine raspberry juice, cold water, lime juice & gelatin, set aside for at least 5 minutes.
  
• Combine the 2/3 cup water & sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
• When the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring & allow sugar water to reach 234F (or soft-ball stage).
• Remove from heat & add gelatin mixture. Return to heat & stir continuously till the thermometer reaches 224F.
• Remove from heat & quickly stir in lime zest.
  
• Pour the mixture over the nuts in the prepared pan.
• Allow mixture to set overnight.
• Once hardened, cover completely in powdered sugar & cut into squares with an oiled/buttered knife.
• Coat all sides of the candy in powdered sugar & allow to stand for another 12 hours.
• Store in an airtight container.