Vegan Gummies
A chewy, dense, and pectin based vegan gummy. All of the tips and tricks that make this gummy better than any other gummy out there.
Ingredients
- 240 g Granulated Sugar
- 120 g Water
- 100 g Tapioca Syrup
- 22 g Pectin HM100 Pacific Pectin
- 10 g Extract orange, mango, apple, grape, etc.
- 5 g MCT Oil Based Flavoring
- 1-2 g Natural Food Coloring
- .02g Sunflower Lecithin
Sour Coating
- 2 tsp Malic Acid
- 1 cup Sugar
Instructions
- Start by combining the pectin with 60g of the sugar to keep it from clumping when adding it to the liquid.
- Add water to a small pot and mix in the pectin and sugar mixture.
- Heat over low heat while stirring until the pectin and sugar start to simmer for twenty seconds.
- Add the tapioca syrup to the pot and continue to stir until it dissolves.
- Add the rest of the sugar to the pot and stir and heat until it dissolves.
- Slightly raise the heat and bring the mixture to a simmer and gentle boil while continuing to stir.
- Be sure to remove any crystals from the side walls of the pot.
- At this point if you are electing to flavor the gummies you can add your extract.
- Do not use propylene glycol based flavoring, it will work on small batches but on large batches it will burn off and the flavor will be off-putting.
- Before you add the oil, dissolve a pinch of sunflower lecithin in it, this is not overly necessary with small batches but extremely important if you multiply the recipe (the oil will separate, the lecithin forces it to emulsify).
- DO NOT ADD COLORING YET!
- Continue to cook and stir until you have a brix reading of at least 82, aim for 83-84. If you do not have a brix reader(refractometer) it will not be as consistent, you can get a cheap one for $25 just make sure it reads up to 90 brix. If you want to try and do it based on temperature it will not give you the best results, however if you have an accurate candy thermometer if you aim for 232-234 degrees you may get lucky from time to time.
- Once you get an accurate brix reading, turn the heat off and continue to stir for a few seconds allowing the confection to stop boiling.
- Add your food coloring (artificial will hold its color better but it is awful for you, find natural if you can).
- The easiest way to pour these accurately is with a microwave safe 16oz squeeze bottle (wrap it with a towel and move slowly). If you don't have a squeeze bottle you can just pour it into a lightly mct oiled silicone mold and spread, it with an oiled spatula or dough knife but move quickly because it will set quickly. You can also pour this into a silpat or lightly oiled parchment lined pan and cut them once cooled similar to slab candy.
- Allow the gummies to set for 3-4 hours at room temperature before removing to sugar or sour coat.
- Whether you are using a sugar coating or a sour coating for these gummies all you need to do is toss the gummies in the coating. For the most uniform coating you will need to steam the gummy for a few seconds before tossing in coating.
- Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Do not use propylene glycol based flavoring, it will work on small batches but on large batches it will burn off and the flavor will be off-putting.
Silicone molds typically have tiny air pockets that will cause some minor surface flaws of the gummy, to get rid of those flaws you will need a different mold material such as polypropylene or metal. If you're coating them with sugar or sour then that doesn't matter in the least.
All extracts, oils, and colorings are different so you will need to adjust accordingly for flavor and color.
For those of you looking to add CBD or THC, distillate is a good option for these. You can add it at any step of the cooking process as is just stir very well. Melting it into a bit of coconut or mct oil will help make it more uniform. I don't think I can legally tell you how much distillate to use but typically around .5g-.8g is a safe starting point.
If you want to use natural blue coloring, you have the let the confection cool down significantly more or it will turn green. Again, this is much more of an issue for large batches, small batches won't be affected too much. If you are doing a large batch let your confection fall to at least 220 degrees, before adding coloring.
Temperature and acidity are the two biggest obstacles for natural coloring, high heat for a prolonged period of time will change natural coloring and high acidity will react will certain natural coloring.
These gummies will last about two week before they start to crystallize. If you want them to last longer then you need to use more syrup and less sugar, 50/50 of each will give you a very long lasting gummy but put a couple grams less of pectin in.