I'm specifically looking for a recipe or product to create a hard
candy shell for chocolate, such as on an m&m.  It has to be possible
to make at home without buying any expensive equipment.

I don't want the name of a book that has the recipe, I want the recipe
itself.

Good luck.. I really can't find this.

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Clarification of Question by emtavano-ga on 18 Jan 2003 20:20 PST

It's not easy!  But also acceptable is any kind of product that offers
a similar result, such as you might find at a candy supply store.  In
theory, anyway.

This is a challenging and interesting question indeed!

The closest I got to finding an answer was the following search:

"make m and m's"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22make+m+and+m%27s%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=active&output=search

There was a result that said: 
"Includes a lesson on how to make M and M's"
SOURCE: http://www.cbv.ns.ca/cdrom/sites/tlplan.htm

Although the website had been gone, I thought I had it when I was able
to pull up the page at the internet archive, but unfortunately this is
what the lesson was:
http://web.archive.org/web/19961227053033/www.voicenet.com/~reevesk/lesson5.html

Another interesting result:

m & m's recipe -cookie -cookies
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&q=%22make+m+%26+m%27s%22+-cookie+-cookies&btnG=Google+Search

which yielded this result:
http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:8ov7D6vfif8C:www.balloonhq.com/deco/upto12Jun2000/archive.13099.html+%22make+m+%26+m%27s%22+-cookie+-cookies&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

This certainly is a challenging question, and there is nothing I want
more right now than some M and M's!!! mmmmmmmmm

tisme-ga

If I remember my candy factory tours correctly, such effects are
created by tumbling the candy for a not-insubstantial amount of time
in giant spinning cylinders much like upsized rock polishing machines.
I believe there would also be multiple layers involved; e.g. candy,
coloring, glaze. Since there's nothing quite like a rock polisher in a
standard kitchen, I would say that you would have to either do some
clever repurposing to avoid "expensive equipment".

The type of coating that one finds on M&Ms or on Jordan almonds is
achieved through a process called "panning" in which a thin layer of 
a hard candy shell is applied to a candy or nut base. The base
material is first placed in a large, rotating pan (hence, the process
name). For a hard shell, several layers of sugar syrup are sprayed
into the pan and allowed to dry between applications. Temperatures of
the centers and of the coating must be carefully controlled and
panning equipment is rather expensive, so it is unlikely that you
could create a coated chocolate confection like M&Ms at home.

Article describes making of jelly beans and the process of "panning"
http://www.sltrib.com/2002/mar/03272002/wednesda/wednesda.htm

Nellie Bly
Google Answers Researcher