Quest for the ultimate gummy

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Eskander

Eskander

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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.
tempImageBtuP3t.png


Next we have a more complex recipe I pulled from here:
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.

tempImageqowbor.png

tempImageo1jRpQ.png


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.

tempImagezGIFjo.png


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...

tempImagevK470M.png


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
 
Last edited:
Eskander

Eskander

149
43
Keep your gelatin between 120 - 140 or it won’t set up proper. If it gets too hot the proteins break apart and don’t congeal as well. This guy has some informative videos.

I think he may be getting his numbers confused. Collagen doesn't really start to break down into gelatin until around 160F and doesn't really get going until 180F. Gelatin starts to break down around 200F and doesn't really get going until temps over boiling. On really long time scales you can break collagen down at 135F so presumable gelatin will do the same thing. Short ribs cooked at 135F for 6 days are both fork tender and medium rare (and fucking amazing!) but I'm not spending more than a half an hour at 170F. Besides, an hour at 150F wasn't enough to fully dissolve the 44g batch and that bloomed correctly.

-Eskander
 
Growgirl77

Growgirl77

16
3
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.
View attachment 1142303

Next we have a more complex recipe I pulled from here:
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.

View attachment 1142304
View attachment 1142305

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.

View attachment 1142306

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...

View attachment 1142307

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
Iove love love gummies!!! Thanks for that , those were good recipes and pointers. 😊
 
Eskander

Eskander

149
43
Iove love love gummies!!! Thanks for that , those were good recipes and pointers. 😊
So I've kept on refining it. Sheet gelatin lets you bloom a large amount of gelatin correctly and it melts quickly and easily without the foaming issues of the the powdered stuff. It is however significantly more expensive and even using platinum strength 40g of it holds about 250g of water so it is mostly useless... The 300 strength powdered stuff off amazon isn't any stronger than Knox and smelled strange.

So that brought me to brute forcing it. In a small pot add your water and get it warm. Sprinkle on the granulated gelatin about 10g at a time and mix with a wire whisk until mostly dissolved. It will never get all the way there so don't bother. Keep on going until all of your gelatin is in there and you have as much as will seem to go in dissolved. Transfer that to a vacuum seal bag, add the rest of the ingredients except the flavoring, color and the and seal it. Set the sous vide at 160F and let the rest of the stuff dissolve. you can pull the bag out and shake it or slosh it side to side to get everything in. There will still be some boogers of gelatin undissolved but they won't matter. If there is foam, put in in the sous vide and leave it until the foam has all gone to the top. Get a new bag ready and clip the bottom corner off the first bag to drain the clear fluid from the bottom. If you have a specific target volume like 100x 3.5ml gummies then measure out water minus the extract volume you need and add that to the new bag. Mark it and dump it out so you can fill it with gummy mix to where you need it. Should be amber colored and completely clear at this point. Add your flavor extract and food coloring to taste then add your THC dissolved in glycerin. Tightly roll one end of the bag and shake it to mix. Give it a taste again and see if the flavor complements they way you want. You can add more flavor oil or citric acid (to make it more sour) to taste.

Seal the bag and put it in the sous vide at 130F. To pour into molds just clip the bottom corner and pinch it shut to stop. At 130F it can be handled bare handed and flows but not fast so handling is easy.

One of the tips I'll offer is that a bigger weaker gummy are best. They mask flavor better and they are much more tolerant of small errors in dispensing volume than small ones. The texture is also far better when they are at least a quarter inch thick.

Minimizing the amount of glycerin helps keep them less sticky once set but in the end I found that coating them in a sugar and citric acid blend (5:1) helped with flavor compatibility for the extract. I'm using LorAnn Green Apple flavor as the base flavor so the weed/sour apple seems to work ok. The regular apple flavor ended up tasting a bit off-putting and required quite a lot to be noticeable at all.

TempImagerT5Ben


Best of luck.

-Eskander
 
Eskander

Eskander

149
43
So I've refined the process and recipe and am pretty happy with where they are now. They are much less sticky and no longer need to be dusted to keep them from sticking together. I've given up on the glycerin as a carrier. It was simply to much of a pain in the ass to emulsify the extract in it and I think it contributed significantly to how sticky the gummies were once set. Using a 1:9 dilution of coconut oil makes handling easy and is easy to et into suspension in the gummy mix vs recipes calling for a third of the liquid volume in oil...

450g sugar
120g gelatin
340g cold water
450g corn syrup
50g sorbitol
1g xanthan gum
30g citric acid
10ml green apple flavor
10ml extract in coconut oil (100 mg/ml THC)
10 to 20 drops food coloring

Mix the sugar and gelatin powder in a bowl with a whisk until thoroughly blended. This keeps the gelatin from clumping into blobs that never dissolve. Add in the ice cold water and whisk that in until you have everything wetted out. It should look like apple sauce. Add the rest of the ingredients (except your extract) and mix thoroughly. Pour the mix into a vacuum sealer bag and then seal it. If it has started to harden, simply microwave until it will start to flow again. Don't worry about eliminating all the air from the bag. Place in sous vide at 150F until it is clear and the foam has all risen to the top. Clip off a bottom corner and pour out what you need for your current batch into another vacuum bag. Add your extract and food coloring, seal the bag (with as little air left as possible) and mix until it is a uniform color. Adding the extract and dye together give you an easy indication when everything is incorporated.

These are very large bear with a volume of 7.5ml each. They have a good taste, texture and appearance so I think for my purposes I'm pretty happy with this as an endpoint. With the large gummies at 10mg per gummy, what flavor there is from extract is extremely mild and works well with the green apple flavor.

-Sandow

Bears
 
Alipiama

Alipiama

4
3
I've been taking CBD for about six months, and it has helped with the joint pain I have had since I was a kid. I'm currently in the process of recovering from a broken shoulder bone and knee surgery. After I started using the oil, I had wrist pain and knee pain that could not be relieved by any medications I was using. The oil helped me eliminate these pains by using it three times a day for 2-3 weeks. I think it's a great idea to make homemade chewable for health benefits cbd. If you develop your recipe, you'll be impressed with its great taste and low-calorie content.
 
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