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Step 1Tools and Ingredients
When I made the candies in the picture, I experimented with many, many different techniques and recipes to figure out how to get the best flavor, texture and the clarity.
I made them in small batches so I could do many experiments.
The recipe is for a small batch (one full mold for me). You will probably want to double, triple, or quadruple it. I think it will be easier and you will have more candies that are very clear.
3 packets of Unflavored Gelatin (Knox is most common in the US - they come 4 packets to a box)
1 500 mg Vitamin C (optional but it adds some great sour flavor)
1/3 to 1/2 cup of water
A cooking pot that the cup will fit into
Some kind of spatula.
Mold* or a flat bottom pan to pour the candy into
Mortar and Pestle (or a hammer?) to grind up the Vitamin C
In the photos you see me using a shallow pan with just about an 1" - 1 1/2" of water to melt the syrup. You should go ahead and use a pot so you can get the water level up another inch or two. I only used the shallow pan for the photos. It was just so you could see the side of the cup and what is was happening while the syrup was cooking. I use a sauce pan when I make them now. A double boiler would be ideal, but I couldn't find one in the stores I visited. They aren't as popular as they used to be.
The syringe I used to fill the mold is optional. You can just pour the candy in. I bought the syringe at Tap Plastics. You can get big syringes like this in cooking stores also. There are syringes for injecting stuff into meats. They can handle the hot syrup really well. I found the hole at the end was so small was very slow at filling the mold.
I have a metal and plastic trigger activated frosting gun. It is used to decorate cakes. I don't remember when, or where I bought it hahaha. I tend to buy tools when they are on sale and think up a use later. I've never used it to frost a cake. I decided to try it out with the gummie syrup and it worked great. That is what I use now.
(The wire strainer is not needed. I reviewed my notes on the experiments and the clearest candies - the green and red, didn't use the sifter.)
* I made a silicone mold out of Food Grade silicone. I'll talk about molds on step 4. You don't need a custom mold, or any mold at all, to make gummies.
I made them in small batches so I could do many experiments.
The recipe is for a small batch (one full mold for me). You will probably want to double, triple, or quadruple it. I think it will be easier and you will have more candies that are very clear.
Recipe:
1 package of flavored Gelatin (Jello)3 packets of Unflavored Gelatin (Knox is most common in the US - they come 4 packets to a box)
1 500 mg Vitamin C (optional but it adds some great sour flavor)
1/3 to 1/2 cup of water
Tools:
Pyrex Measuring cupA cooking pot that the cup will fit into
Some kind of spatula.
Mold* or a flat bottom pan to pour the candy into
Mortar and Pestle (or a hammer?) to grind up the Vitamin C
In the photos you see me using a shallow pan with just about an 1" - 1 1/2" of water to melt the syrup. You should go ahead and use a pot so you can get the water level up another inch or two. I only used the shallow pan for the photos. It was just so you could see the side of the cup and what is was happening while the syrup was cooking. I use a sauce pan when I make them now. A double boiler would be ideal, but I couldn't find one in the stores I visited. They aren't as popular as they used to be.
The syringe I used to fill the mold is optional. You can just pour the candy in. I bought the syringe at Tap Plastics. You can get big syringes like this in cooking stores also. There are syringes for injecting stuff into meats. They can handle the hot syrup really well. I found the hole at the end was so small was very slow at filling the mold.
I have a metal and plastic trigger activated frosting gun. It is used to decorate cakes. I don't remember when, or where I bought it hahaha. I tend to buy tools when they are on sale and think up a use later. I've never used it to frost a cake. I decided to try it out with the gummie syrup and it worked great. That is what I use now.
(The wire strainer is not needed. I reviewed my notes on the experiments and the clearest candies - the green and red, didn't use the sifter.)
* I made a silicone mold out of Food Grade silicone. I'll talk about molds on step 4. You don't need a custom mold, or any mold at all, to make gummies.
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Go for it though. I don't know what they are but be creative and have fun.
Be careful out there.
(or did you mean a mold used to mold fimo?)
It has been really variable for me on how it cooks. I've tried to get a really perfect recipe and technique for y'all. I've cooked up up at least 16 batches, keeping track of the changes and it still does unpredictable things to me.
Last time I tried a double batch. It came out like a smoothie instead of clay, like yours. I thought maybe I'd screwed up the recipe and quadrupled instead of doubled the water (I was using a different measuring cup) so I doubled up the gelatin again.
It got closer to the clay, but was still more liquid than before. When I cooked it up I could not get it to clarify at all. So I figured it must have been correct the first time, and added the water needed to get it back into the balance that I recommend. That was better but still wouldn't clarify. I don't know why it wouldn't. Maybe I just messed with it too many times.
The consistency was the same as my other candies so I must have had it right the first time, and the smoothie was correct!
I figured out a way to rescue a batch that I'd screwed up and used it a couple of times with failed experiments.
Clarify a bad batch
After you have cooked it up, pull the cup out of the water - cover and refrigerate, or put in the freezer it (don't let it freeze though - just firm up), or cover it and leave on the counter overnight if you have the time.
When it firms up, pull the whole chunk out of the cup. I've done this three times and it always separated into a clear and a foam layer. I didn't think people would want to be told to cook it twice and only used it when I really messed up so I didn't put it in the Instructable.
Then I cut the chunk up with clean scissors. Cut off the foam layer, while you do this. No need to be perfect. Then melt all those great clear chunks. Don't just let it sit though, do some gentle stirring from time to time. Even more bubbles will rise out and the candies will be very clear.
The time I just let the clear chunks melt without stirring, it separated some, and the candies on one side of the mold were like Jello Jigglers with the ones on the opposite side like rubber.
Use that really clear syrup in your molds. When you are done with that, you can just melt that foam also. The little bit of clear will separate down to the bottom and can be drawn off, or you can just let the whole thing solidify, and cut it up as foamy candy. It's still delicious.
Taffy like foamy candies
I've stuck my spatula in the foam while it was cooling down, and spun it around like cotton candy. (My spatula is silicone). It doesn't pick up all the foam, but gets a nice bulb of foam on the end of the spatula. I let that harden and then peeled the foam off of the spatula. I really liked that as a candy also. Spinning onto the spatula, made it a little more dense and chewy. More like a taffy.
I don't know how I'd do this to a full batch. Maybe I could just beat it with beaters to intentionally foam it, and swirled it onto several different sticks or spoons? I may experiment with that also. It is good.
If they are too hard again, you could just try to remelt them and add more water. I've never tried it but it seems like it would work.