Gummy Bears...another vegan candy experiment!

GUMMY BEARS...

I love gummy bears!  I first had them when I went to college because we hardly ate candy in my mother's house.  I remember I would buy a pack to make it through English class as an undergraduate.  I also remember the day I actually read the ingredients and was horrified to find it had gelatin in it.  Gelatin is usually made by boiling the bones, cartilage, and skins of animals or fish.  This definitely is not a vegetarian or vegan product.

Forever, I knew that we couldn't have jello because I was around five or six when my parents found out about gelatin and my mom stopped making her lemon pie because its main ingredient was gelatin.  I was disappointed because I really loved that pie.  Now, it's very clear that many professing vegetarians and vegans, even some of you now reading this blog, are surprised that gelatin is in the animal family because it is in tons of products.  Yogurts, cakes, pies, salads, and many other products contain gelatin.  Kosher gelatin is made from fish while all others are made from cows or pigs.

So, what's the alternative?  Agar and pectin are popular vegan/vegetarian substitutes, however, they sometime need more experimentation before you get an old gelatin recipe just right.  There are agar flakes and agar powder.  I usually use the powder because I find it to be cheaper than the flakes.  I buy it for .99¢ from the local Asian market.  Vegans use agar to solidify bean or nut cheeses, candies, jello, vegan eggs, etc.  Pectin is often used for jams and other things that agar can be used to make.  However, it can also be used to make these candies because I see pectin in the ingredients of vegan jelly beans and gummy bears at Whole Foods.  However, I haven't found a recipe with pectin yet.

Now a word of caution..  If you ask anyone who works with agar or pectin, you'll find that it takes a bit of working with before things turn out "just right."  You can't under-do it or over-do it with agar or you risk things being too soft or hard.  Therefore, if you find a recipe that calls for these agar, be especially careful to stick with the prescribed amount and type of agar for the recipe. If you don't, things may not turn out so well.

Well, with that said, let's get to the gummy bears.  There are a few recipes online, but I decided to try the second recipe below using only frozen fruit juice concentrate to make my gummy bears. Keep reading...

GUMMY BEARS
Original online recipes:

1. http://www.thenakedkitchen.com/all-fruit-gummy-bears/
2. http://ladymake.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-VEGAN-Gummi-Worms
3. http://www.ehow.com/how_6947506_make-gummy-bear-steps.html

Gummy Bears in the candy mold.

For this experiment, I used:

4 tablespoons Agar Agar powder (not flakes)

2 cups fruit juice (your favorite flavor!)

1 sauce pan

1 candy mold 

1/4 cup corn starch (or close)

1 pinch of salt (really just a few flicks!)

Closer peak at them in the tray.

As you can tell, I cut the recipe in half because this was only an experiment.  UPDATE from my initial post... Though my first batch was not completely gummy, while waiting for them to solidify, I kept the mixture on the stove stirring from time to time.  The mixture reduced and the gummy texture appeared.  I'll continue to work on this recipe.  Turns out that you MUST keep them in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes.  The cornstarch did help.  I didn't use it on the following batches and they were more of a bear to get out than the first batch.  I will look for something different to help slide these candies out of the mold next time.  I did not add any extra sweetener other than the juice and they didn't seem sweet to me, but they were a bit understated.  I brushed some ascorbic acid on a few.  They do taste sour.  

Finally got a bear out of the tray.  I'm happy, but it has to easier to
get them out of the tray!

All-in-all, I am truly happy with my effort today.