Healthy Homemade Gummies (sugar-free with vegan option)

These Homemade Gummies are super fun and easy to make and so much healthier than the store-bought gummy snacks.

You'll love serving these loaded with good nutrition treats that are so good for gut health and a great source of protein too.

I'm always looking for healthy snacks that I can make in a jiffy like these no-bake cookies, no-bake chocolate mint bars, kale chips, homemade “JELLO®”, and healthy chocolate truffles.

This recipe for Homemade Gummies fits the bill and is from Candace from Candida-Free Candee (a blog that is sadly no longer operating).

Interesting Facts About Gelatin's Health Benefits

Many people talk about gelatin being good for your gut (helping with candida, leaky gut, and other intestinal woes), but there are some facts I learned that you might not know.

In fact, the information in Nourishing Traditions (NT) about gelatin is simply fascinating. The book states that raw foods are hydrophilic, meaning they attract water, whereas cooked foods are hydrophobic and repel water.

Therefore, raw foods are easier to digest and digest more completely because they attract liquid in the form of digestive juices.

That being said, cooked foods containing gelatin will digest more easily because gelatin itself is hydrophilic, even when heated. This means that when gelatin is consumed with cooked foods, it draws the juices to itself, much like what happens when uncooked food is eaten.

Fascinating!

This property of gelatin helps move food through the digestive system properly and efficiently.

Gelatin also contains Glycine, an amino acid, which stimulates the secretions of gastric acid in the stomach. This promotes proper digestion and aids in the breaking down of proteins.

Incomplete or impeded digestion of proteins can (according to the Weston A. Price Foundation) contribute to a variety of aliments from food allergies, intestinal infections and candida, to rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, acne and the list doesn't stop there.

Equally as impressive; gelatin can actually help repair and heal the mucosal lining of the digestive tract, which is glorious news for those of us dealing with candida and the aftermath of the leaky gut syndrome. According to this site, “Gelatin is reported to seal and heal any damage it finds by lining the gastrointestinal tract and nourishing the rapidly-growing mucous membranes.”

NT, and most sources, indicate that the best way to get gelatin into your diet is via homemade broths and sauces (which is a traditional culinary practice abandoned only in recent history).

Sugar-free Gummies–An Amazingly Healthy Snack

In the meantime, there are other delicious ways to up your gelatin intake. These include drinking it in hot water with a little lemon, adding it to popsicles like these Key Lime Coconut Milk Popsicles, adding it to homemade ice creams, making Homemade Jello®, or making this Homemade Gummy Candy!

That's right–Homemade Gummies. These candies can be made quickly and easily and even can be made without sugar.

The candida-friendly version (lemon or lime) of these homemade gummy snacks is reminiscent of a perfectly sweet, yet tangy, lemonade. The non-candida versions taste their best when made with no sugar added fruit juice concentrate.

The flavor will likely not be strong enough for you using diluted fruit juices or pureed fruits, but feel free to play around and try adding more sweetener. Those options may just suit your tastes!

In terms of which brand of gelatin to use, I recommend Great Lakes. They use pasture-fed cows that are not treated with antibiotics or hormones and are free of many allergens as well as MSG.

What You'll Need

lemon or lime juice (or other juice concentrate–see Recipe Notes for alternatives)
grass-fed gelatin (see vegan alternative above in notes)
liquid stevia (to taste)

So Many Fun Molds for Gummies

Of course, homemade sugar-free gummy bears are one of the cutest things you can do. These are the gummy bear molds that I have:

Even though they look hard to make, they're not. You just have that one extra step of putting the liquid in the dropper (and cleaning it out, of course).

These silicone star molds are very close to the ones that I have and I LOVE them. I've used them to make my Homemade Jello® and Homemade Chocolate Chips into super fun shapes..yum!

Here's a photo of gummies made with those molds.

There are soooo many fun molds to try for all kinds of seasons and events!

How about:

• St. Patrick's Day Molds
• Fun Assorted Molds
• Easter Theme Molds
• Valentine's Day Molds
• Christmas Molds
• Flower Molds

These are all just too. Much. Fun.

And this is the book that I mentioned earlier — Nourishing Traditions. I don't agree with everything in here, but it is a great resource for tons of dietary issues.

Directions

• Whisk all ingredients in a small sauce pan.

• Heat over low heat until mixture loses its “applesauce” consistency and starts to liquify.

• Pour into molds. (Photo 5)
• Allow gummies to set. You can either do this by placing molds on a flat surface in the freezer, fridge or on the counter. The freezer is your quickest option and will take about 10-15 minutes to set. (Photo 6)
• Remove from molds and store in the fridge in an air tight container.

Substitutions for Special Diets

• Sweetener Options: Some people have been asking how much stevia extract can be used instead of the liquid stevia. I'm working on figuring that out for you!
  If you would like to make your own liquid stevia, see Homemade Liquid Stevia. You can substitute other sweeteners as desired. Use 4-5 tablespoons honey, maple syrup (read Choosing Maple Syrup for information on selecting maple syrup), or sucanat (4-5 tablespoons) for AIP, or for a low-carb granulated sweetener, use either 4-5 tablespoons xylitol or allulose, or 5-7 tablespoons erythritol. I haven't tested all of these, but they should work.
• Flavor Options: The video in the post shows 4 different flavors. If you use lemon or lime you need to add quite a bit of sweetener, as mentioned in the post. If you use a fruit juice concentrate, it's totally up to you how much you can add–you might feel that they're sweet enough without adding any!
  Any of the following juice concentrates would be amazing: Organic cherry concentrate, Organic cranberry concentrate, Organic pomegranate juice concentrate, Organic apple juice concentrate.
  Lemon and lime juice work since they are so strong, but otherwise you
• Important Note: Make sure to avoid pineapple, kiwi, mango, ginger root, papaya, figs, and guava juice. They contain protease enzyme which will prevent gelatin from setting and you'll end up with very mushy gummies.
• Vegan Option: Vegans can use organic agar-agar powder instead of gelatin.

FAQ's

Are These Homemade Gummies Like Store-bought?

The gummies in this recipe are kind of a mix between gelatin snacks and gummy snacks. I hope to try a recipe using just pectin in the future to make them more like store-bought snacks. We do love them anyhow, however, and so do our friends.

How Should You Store These Gummies?

You can store these in the fridge, or even in the freezer.

Are These Stable At Room Temperature?

These Homemade Gummies taste great at room temperature, just out of the fridge, and they even taste GREAT out of the freezer! However, these do not do well in very hot weather–as in, they morph into a liquid gummy drink.

We once took them to a county fair when it was over 90 degrees, and ended up with a gummy puddle. We were super hungry so we drank the liquid homemade gummies anyhow, but just be forewarned :).

You could, of course, get a small cooler pack like this so you can take your gummies with you even in warm weather!

The easiest way to make these is to pour the mixture into a square or rectangle pan and then cutting them after chilling, or be creative and make them into any kind of shape.

This single batch is a small batch. We legit make 12 (yes, that's TWELVE) batches of these every time that we make them. Feel free to just make one batch to see how you like them, or if you want to make a whole bunch of flavors. But make 12 if you want to have quite a few around for ongoing healthy snacking.

Whatever flavor of homemade gummy snacks you try, I so hope you enjoy them!

What do you think about gelatin?
Yea or Nay?