Candy, sloppy joes, a garden survival test, and the machine you keep asking me about. That was the week. Start with the Butterfinger card below. It's a beginner run, and it's one of the biggest changes you'll ever see from a candy.
This week's freeze dry: Butterfinger
Freeze drying turns the peanut butter center of a Butterfinger into a light, flaky crunch, and the chocolate stays wrapped around it. Here's the full card.
**Prep:** Cut each bar into halves or thirds. They grow to about 3 times their size, so cut with that in mind. Lay them in a single layer and leave space between every piece so they don't puff into each other and stick.
**Settings:** Candy Mode. Tray loading temp 70°F, skip pre-warming, dry at 150°F. If your machine doesn't have Candy Mode, dry at 150°F with 3 hours of extra dry time.
**Run time:** Plan on about 3 hours, with 1 to 2 pounds per tray.
**Pull it when:** the centers have puffed into that flaky crunch and the chocolate is still wrapped around each piece.
Some bars puff more than others, so don't worry if every piece looks a little different. You can watch them grow in the Butterfinger video.
What worked this week
If you only watch one video from this week, make it EVERYONE Keeps Asking Me About This Machine!. It's all about the chamber vacuum sealer, the machine you keep asking me about.
The comments turned into a sealer meetup. A lot of you run Vevor sealers and love them. One of you has the floor standing model, one got a big one for $300, and one said theirs has worked flawlessly. My favorite comment: "I have a chamber sealer and never knew that's how it works - it was just magic to me."
You asked good questions too. Can it do powders and liquids? Would a regular FoodSaver do the same job? Do you still need an oxygen absorber in the bag? I answer that last one in the next section.
The other one worth your time is Can I Make Sloppy Joes Shelf Stable?. One of you already did it back in April and said it "turns out amazing when reconstituted."
The freeze-dry takeaway: four packing rules from my cards
A good batch can still go wrong in the bag. These are the packing rules that show up on my recipe cards over and over.
- **Let it cool completely first.** My candy cards say it again and again. Warm candy that goes straight into a jar won't stay as crunchy.
- **Jars for soon, mylar for later.** The Butterfinger card puts short term storage in a mason jar and long term storage in a mylar bag.
- **Mylar gets an oxygen absorber.** For long term storage, my cards for ground beef, diced onions, sliced chicken, and cauliflower flour all call for mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.
- **Give puffy candy room on the way out too.** Caramel Apple Pops expand more than most candy, and the pieces are fragile. Hold the top sheet of parchment in place while you slide each tray out so the candy doesn't catch on the shelf above.
So, to the person who asked whether a chamber sealer means you can skip the oxygen absorber: my cards still call for oxygen absorbers in mylar bags for long term storage.
From the comments
From the sloppy joe video: "Just rehydrated my tuna casserole. I make sure to have leftovers. So I can have quick meals."
That's the habit right there. Make a little extra, put it on a tray, and future you has a quick meal ready.
And to the person who asked where to order my recipe book: the founding edition is up for preorder. It ships to U.S. addresses only, and shipping is estimated for December 2026.
Try this before next week
Run one tray of Butterfingers. Cut them in halves or thirds, give every piece room, and keep the Butterfinger card open in Freeze-Dry Buddy while you load so the settings are right in front of you.
In Freeze-Dry Buddy: pump oil, tracked for you
Your vacuum pump oil is easy to forget, and a few weeks ago it came up in the comments. This one was on my list, and it's here now. In Freeze-Dry Buddy, go to Settings > Machine > Pump oil, log your last oil change, and choose how many batches your pump runs between changes. The app counts your batches from there and puts a reminder on your Today screen when the next change is due.
It's in version 26.9.28 on iPhone. Update the app, log your last change, and you're set.