Eskander
- 149
- 43
I've been playing with recipes and trying to find an approach that isn't just functional but is good in all respects. A good gummy should have good flavor, good texture, good shelf life, good appearance and shouldn't be sticky to the touch. I'll be using extract in glycerin because I think the oil emulsified gummies have a strange texture and they are always cloudy which detracts from the appearance. For now I'm just using extract free glycerin so I can run through batches and refine things at a reasonable pace.
My first batch was with the dead simple jello plus extra gelatin which is a recipe I see referenced a lot. After trying it I'll qualify this as functional but terrible. The texture is just wrong and nothing else mattered in contact of that.
1 large box of jello
2 packets of gelatin
2 tablespoons of glycerin.
2/3 cup of water
This went into a sealed vacuum bag in the water bath at 150. Melted it all down, snipped the corner and poured it into lightly oiled silicon trays. If you just want easy and don't care about texture or flavor, you can do this. They don't stick together either which is a plus. If you let them dry in the open air they are like chewing rubber.
Next we have a more complex recipe I pulled from here:
sugargeekshow.com
227 sugar
27g sorbitol
44g knox gelatin
170g water
227g light corn syrup
2 teaspoons citric acid
1 dram LorAnn oil
2 tablespoons glycerin
First batch is exactly what the recipe calls for except for the addition of 2 tablespoons of glycerin. 150F for the water bath didn't hack it so I ended up at 170F. This made handling the bag without a glove on painful but got it all into solution. This had a foam layer that the jello did not. My guess is there is an anti-foaming agent in jello to deal with it. Since I'm pouring from the bottom, it doesn't make any difference but it is notable.
I used the LorAnn orange for this batch and the flavor and smell were great. I didn't bother with food coloring so the color is really just the gelatin. They ended up too soft and they were relatively sticky. I gave them another spritz with oil and rubbed them down. helped for a bit but then the started sticking again. Given a few days to dry out they were better on both fronts but they ended up with a slightly tough outer layer that doesn't blow my skirt up.
Messing with more than one variable at a time doesn't get you very far so the next batch I simply went from 44g to 60g of gelatin. I did the 170F bath until clear but then dropped it to 130F before I poured so it would be easy to handle. I also fused the bag at a sharp angle at the bottom to give me a pastry bag like feel. This worked out really well in terms of handling.
This ended up foaming vastly more. I think if I were using extract in this, I'd drain out the clear mix into another bag before adding the extract to avoid having the good stuff trapped in what looks for all the world like beer foam. Probably also best to add the LorAnn at that point too. Never know what the heat tolerance of flavorings really is...
This was noticeably more viscous but still flowed into even the small features of the molds. They set up well in 2 hours at room temp. Texture is better but the surfaces are still a bit sticky when they first came out. They are still quite soft but not excessively. 2 hour drying on each side on parchment seems to resolve most of the stickiness without giving them the leather shell. Mostly there but they are still a bit softer than I'd like.
I doubt I can get more gelatin into the mix. At 60 grams of Knox, the water content in this recipe doesn't even fully wet it and there were a few strands of hardened gelatin that never dissolved because proper blooming wasn't possible. Knox is rated at 225 bloom strength and I have some 300 bloom stuff on the way. If that doesn't do the trick I'm at a bit of a loss. Any suggestions? Agar Agar, lambda or iota carrageenan? Change up the sugars? I'm open to more or less anything. Have any of you ended up with a gummy you are truly happy with and if so how?
-Eskander
@Tincandtoke
My first batch was with the dead simple jello plus extra gelatin which is a recipe I see referenced a lot. After trying it I'll qualify this as functional but terrible. The texture is just wrong and nothing else mattered in contact of that.
1 large box of jello
2 packets of gelatin
2 tablespoons of glycerin.
2/3 cup of water
This went into a sealed vacuum bag in the water bath at 150. Melted it all down, snipped the corner and poured it into lightly oiled silicon trays. If you just want easy and don't care about texture or flavor, you can do this. They don't stick together either which is a plus. If you let them dry in the open air they are like chewing rubber.
Next we have a more complex recipe I pulled from here:
Real Gummy Bear Recipe
This gummy bear recipe makes shelf-stable gummy bears that taste just like the real thing! Switch up the flavors and colors and make them unique
sugargeekshow.com
27g sorbitol
44g knox gelatin
170g water
227g light corn syrup
2 teaspoons citric acid
1 dram LorAnn oil
2 tablespoons glycerin
First batch is exactly what the recipe calls for except for the addition of 2 tablespoons of glycerin. 150F for the water bath didn't hack it so I ended up at 170F. This made handling the bag without a glove on painful but got it all into solution. This had a foam layer that the jello did not. My guess is there is an anti-foaming agent in jello to deal with it. Since I'm pouring from the bottom, it doesn't make any difference but it is notable.
I used the LorAnn orange for this batch and the flavor and smell were great. I didn't bother with food coloring so the color is really just the gelatin. They ended up too soft and they were relatively sticky. I gave them another spritz with oil and rubbed them down. helped for a bit but then the started sticking again. Given a few days to dry out they were better on both fronts but they ended up with a slightly tough outer layer that doesn't blow my skirt up.
Messing with more than one variable at a time doesn't get you very far so the next batch I simply went from 44g to 60g of gelatin. I did the 170F bath until clear but then dropped it to 130F before I poured so it would be easy to handle. I also fused the bag at a sharp angle at the bottom to give me a pastry bag like feel. This worked out really well in terms of handling.
This ended up foaming vastly more. I think if I were using extract in this, I'd drain out the clear mix into another bag before adding the extract to avoid having the good stuff trapped in what looks for all the world like beer foam. Probably also best to add the LorAnn at that point too. Never know what the heat tolerance of flavorings really is...
This was noticeably more viscous but still flowed into even the small features of the molds. They set up well in 2 hours at room temp. Texture is better but the surfaces are still a bit sticky when they first came out. They are still quite soft but not excessively. 2 hour drying on each side on parchment seems to resolve most of the stickiness without giving them the leather shell. Mostly there but they are still a bit softer than I'd like.
I doubt I can get more gelatin into the mix. At 60 grams of Knox, the water content in this recipe doesn't even fully wet it and there were a few strands of hardened gelatin that never dissolved because proper blooming wasn't possible. Knox is rated at 225 bloom strength and I have some 300 bloom stuff on the way. If that doesn't do the trick I'm at a bit of a loss. Any suggestions? Agar Agar, lambda or iota carrageenan? Change up the sugars? I'm open to more or less anything. Have any of you ended up with a gummy you are truly happy with and if so how?
-Eskander
@Tincandtoke
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