Making gummy bears at home is actually a simple process and they are made from mostly juice and sugar, which are items most people have in their kitchens.
Here are the ingredients that you need to make homemade gummy bears:
- ½ cup orange, lemon, lime or grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed. You can also use Koolaid Country Time brands but NO bottled fruit juices!
- 3 tablespoons unflavored gelatin (this is 1.5 packets of KNOX)
- ¼ cup sugar (this is optional if you don’t want the gummies to be too sweet)
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup if you have it OR you can use honey
Here are the directions that you need in order to make homemade gummy bears:
Firstly, you need to grab your silicone molds. They can be bear-shaped, resemble legos, or even be big or small ice cubes. If you don’t want to make shapes then you can just use a flat pan or baking sheet to make a uniform gummy.
Then coat the mold or pan with a non-stick spray. Pour the juice into the pan.
Next, in a medium saucepan which has not been placed on heat yet, sprinkle gelatin evenly over liquid and let it sit for two whole minutes until it absorbs completely and turns completely translucent.
Then, add sugar and corn syrup to the saucepan and then immediately transfer the saucepan to medium-low heat. Begin mixing the combination with a spatula (it’s important that you don’t use a whisk or the consistency won’t be right. You should carefully begin to move the mixture around, but make sure not to aerate it.
Wait until all ingredients have dissolved and the liquid is clearly warmed but is not yet boiling. Then pour the warm mixture into the mold, filling each mold as much as you want without overfilling it. Let the mixture sit for three minutes in the mold at room temperature. Then transfer it to the fridge for 30 minutes to set completely.
Once the mold is set, bring it back out and onto the counter. Next, knock the molds out on a clean plate or pan ( if you didn’t use a mold and just used a pan, now is the time to cut them down to the size or shape you want) and leave them out for 6-24 hours to fully dehydrate.
Please keep in mind that they’ll shrink up to 25% in size. Also, the longer that the gummies are left to sit out, the chewier that they will become. The final step, if you want, is to roll the finished gummies in a little bit of sugar mixed with some citric acid to add a bit of extra texture to the gummies.
