I’ve perfected my gummy worm recipe. I finally got the missing ingredient I needed to make the herbal tincture required. The ingredient I needed and can’t get in California is Everclear which is 190% ethanol. That’s as pure as it can get as there is always 5% water in it no matter how many times you distill alcohol. It’s just basic organic chemistry. There are limits to how pure certain things can be especially when dealing with “like” substances. In this case, both ethanol and water are polar molecules meaning they have a polarity.
The oxygen end of each water molecule has a negative charge relative to the hydrogen end of the molecule which would be positive in comparison. Alcohol is also a polar molecule. Since they are both polar substances, they mix together as “like dissolves like” in the world of chemistry. That’s why oil and vinegar don’t mix. Oil is a non-polar molecule while vinegar is a polar molecule. Alcohol can only be a maximum of 95% pure with 5% water left in it since you just can’t get 100% of the H2O out of it.
Here’s how I did it:
To make the tincture, I put 2 ounces of herb into 4½ cups of Everclear. I wanted a ratio of 2:1, in the end, knowing some alcohol would evaporate in the process of making the tincture. So I added an extra ½ cup of Everclear in the beginning. I put it in a Magic Butter machine for 8 hours on 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Ethanol boils at 171 degrees so you want to create your tincture at about 10 degrees cooler than that boiling point. Four hours would be enough, but I did it for eight hours to make a very strong tincture. You can make a tincture without heat. To do so you put your alcohol and herb into a jar for at least a month. Shake it up every few days. Using heat, obviously, speeds up the whole process tremendously.
Note: You must first decarboxylate your herb prior to making a tincture or you’ll just be wasting herb.
Then I put these ingredients together:
1 cup tincture
Four 3 ounce packets of flavored jello (I chose lime)
2½ ounces of unflavored gelatin
1¼ cup of juice of choice (I chose lime juice)
1 tbsp of monk fruit sweetener
2 tbsps of flavored extract (I used lemon)
1 tbsp of citric acid
2 ounces of beeswax:
Here’s what you do with it all:
1) Put tincture into a saucepan on low heat and stir until it reduces to a syrup consistency (it will reduce to about ¼ cup)
2) Add flavored extract and monk fruit sweetener then stir on low heat until it has a syrup consistency again. Let it cool to room temperature.
3) In a mixing bowl mix the flavored jello, the unflavored gelatin and citric acid.
4) Add the juice and contents of mixing bowl into the saucepan. Mix thoroughly with a whisk.
5) Since I added some beeswax to harden my gummy worms, I first zapped that in the microwave until it melted then added that to the saucepan. I heated it up on low heat to get it to all become liquid again then mixed it all up thoroughly.
6) Let the contents in the saucepan cool and congeal. It took about 1½ hours for this to happen. This is an important step you must do if you want to succeed in making gummy candies.
7) Have your candy forms ready to go. Heat up the contents of the saucepan again until it all liquifies. To do this you need to stir the contents the entire time for around 10 minutes on low heat.
8) Pour into a measuring cup or use a turkey baster or whatever you want to use to pour into the candy molds. Do this fairly quickly before it hardens. I did about ½ cup at a time so I could reheat the stuff in the saucepan a little bit to keep it liquid.
I was able to use a rubber spatula to move stuff that slopped over into the molds easily. There was some slop left over but that can simply be peeled off at the end when the gummys are done.
Here’s what I got:
What do you want to talk about today?
Netroots Nation 2018
RSVPS
1. Neeta Lind, organizer (kosmail her to connect)
2. Bill in Portland Maine
3. Common Sense Mainer
4. Meteor Blades
5. vicki
6. markm667
7. belinda ridgewood
8. paradise50
9. smileycreek
10. side pocket
11. Mrs. side pocket
12. annrose
13. Spedwybabs
14. ericlewis0
15. shanikka
16. Crashing Vor
17. cv lurking gf
18. brillig
19. mik,
20. K1 (aka thatkid)
21. K2
22. loggersbrat
23. Richard Cranium
24. Jeff Singer
25. BeninSC
26. KathyinSC
27. mommyof3
28. Chris Reeves
29. DrLori
30. Will Johnson
31. Carolyn Fiddler
32. Irna Landrum
33. Drew Linzer
34. Jen Hayden
35. peregrine kate
36. Michael Langenmayr
37. Paul Hogarth
38. Rachel Colyer
39. Wagatwe Wanjuki
40. Kelly Macias
41. ramara
42. Will Rockafellow
43. Jessica Sutherland
44. Rory Morris
45. Laura Clawson
46. Arjun Jaikumar
47. Rachel Sinderbrand
48. Wes Williamson
49. Kimm Lett
50. Huiying Chan
51. Joan McCarter
52. Candelaria Vargas
53. Stephen Wolf
54. Gabe Ortiz
55. Steven Howard
56. Jessica Sutherland
57. Jonaya Leek
58. Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza
59. chigh
60. chigh2
61. Mark E. Anderson
62. Marian Piekarczyk
63. gmats
64.
MAYBEES :
|