How to make Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Worms without Artificial Sweetener or Animal Cartilage

To date there’s been no word of what’s become of Patria Kay-Aaron’s Sweet Confectionary Candy Factory  that I’d uncovered by accident back in April 2014 as stated in my blog article entitled “Sweetie Confectionery CEO Patria-Kaye Aarons to launch Jamaican Flavoured Candy - May the Force be with the Weather Presenter as it's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”.

This despite tracking all news and posts via Google Alerts on her activity hoping to hear a break so that I can do a follow-up blog article my Geezam blog article entitled “Google Alerts Diamond in the Rough coming to Google+ to deliver Technology News”, as her story has generated a lot of interest on my blog as it relates to cooking.

So much so that I’ve had to do a series of articles on making chocolate confectionary, the most recent being the making of Oreo Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes  as explained in detail in my blog article entitled “How to make Oreo Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes - My Chocolate Summer in Milk River as I'm dreaming of Swallowfield”.

Not to mention more personal information about myself, as traffic’s been up ever since I’ve begun doing article where I reveal what it’s like to basically live in community of Swallowfield near to the National Stadium and in Rest District, Milk River, Clarendon here in Jamaica!

At least, to my credit, I did suggest that she can go into Outer Space in a stratospheric balloon as described in my blog article entitled “Patria Kay-Aarons in Space – How the CVM TV Weather Girl can become Jamaica’s first Astronaut”. After all, if a Lego Man can do it, then everything is awesome, Kung Fu Panda Style!

Still, it’s been four months and no candy made by Patria Kay-Aaron’s Sweet Confectionary Candy Factory. To that end, I’ve decided to make some candy myself, starting with my favourite: Gummy Worms

How to make Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms – No Artificial Sweetener or Animal Cartilage

If you’ve read my blog article entitled “Sweetie Confectionery CEO Patria-Kaye Aarons to launch Jamaican Flavoured Candy - May the Force be with the Weather Presenter as it's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, you’d realize that most Candy is made with artificial ingredients.

Especially Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms, which is mostly Guar Gum, Artificial Sweeteners like HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) and HSCS (High Sucrose Corn Syrup) and yes, Bone Cartilage as the graphic below shows.

The main kicker with Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms is the sugar content. Children literally go wild over the amount of sugar that’s packed into these slimy confectionary. So much so that many children and adults like myself, especially if you’re working in a Call Center, will spend their last JA$20 to by packs of these sweets to eat during periods of idle bliss.

Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms get their sweetness from Artificial Sweeteners. By right, they should be using Natural Sugar or Molasses, but that’s too expensive. Artificial Sweeteners are cheaper to make, as they’re basically chemical that mimic sweetness but have empty calories, being as they can’t be processed by the body as sugars.

However, they bind irreversibly with ADP (Adenosine DiPhosphate) and ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate) when broken down in the stomach, resulting in symptoms of Nausea, Headaches, dizziness, Weight Gain, Slurred speech, Fatigue along with s bucket list of very disturbing yet clearly observable side effects, depending on the metabolism of the individual. Mass producers of Candy, however, pile on the Sugar, knowing that Candy sells once it has a lot of sugar.

However, you can make your own Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms without Cartilage, Artificial Sugar or even Sugar for that matter. This DIY (Do It Yourself) will possibly be the sweetest you’ll ever encounter as the result actually mimics and actual products instead of trying to just replace your sweet tooth habit with some natural alternative.

My recipe is the exact same one as shown except with a slight variation to make Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms. To make Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms, you’ll need:

1.      2 packs (3 oz) Jello mix

2.      1 pack unflavoured Gelatin

3.      Honey or Caramelized Sugar

4.      1 Bottle Schweppes Tonic Water

5.      ¾ Whipped Cream

6.      4 Cups Boiling Water

7.      15 Drops Green, Yellow and Red Food Colouring

8.      100 Flexible drinking Straws

9.      Rubber bands

10.  Tall Transparent Glass Container

11.  Large Pot to boil Water

12.  Cooking Thermometer

13.  UV Lamp

The instructions are as simple as pie:

1.      Add 4 Cups of Water in the Large Pot

2.      Place it on the Stove and get it boiling

3.      Add 1 pack unflavoured Gelatin to the Boiling Water in the pot

4.      Add 2 packs (3 oz) Jello mix to the Boiling Water in the pot

5.      Add ¾ Whipped Cream to the Boiling Water in the pot

6.      Add 15 Drops Green, Yellow and Red Food Colouring to the Boiling Water in the pot

7.      Add 1 Bottle Schweppes Tonic Water to the Boiling Water in the pot

8.      Add Honey or Caramelized Sugar to the Boiling Water in the pot albeit this is optional

9.      Boil for 15 to 20 minutes

10.  Let the Mixture cool until it is about 10ºC above Room Temperature (25 ºC) based on the Cooking Thermometer

11.  Pack the 100 Straws together, holding in place with Rubber Bands

12.  Place that 100 Straws into the Tall Transparent Glass Container

13.  Gently pour the Mixture into the straws and allow it to cool and start to gel

14.  Once hardened, you can remove the Gummy Worms by heating in Warm Water and rolling the straws until the slide out

15.  The remaining Mixture can be reheated and poured in various shapes to make various Gummy Bear Shapes

16.  Serve the Gummy Worms and Gummy Bears at night in the presence of the UV Lamp

That’s it folks! These Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Worms and Gummy Bears will look like the real thing and are made with mostly natural ingredients. Far better than the mass produced Candies in Jamaica!

Best of all, you can teach your children how to make them to go with the Glow-in-the-Dark Ice Cream as explained in my blog article entitled “How to make Glow-In-The Dark Ice Cream from Scratch - US$25.95 Zoku Ice Cream Bowl makes Avatar The Last Airbender Frozen Novelties”.

Even better, these can be sold to children going to school, making this a sure-fire money maker for those looking for Jamaican Styled confectionary to make and sell. You can also experiment with various flavouring to make the Glow-in-The-Dark Gummy Worms and Gummy Bears look and taste as great as they appear without Artificial Sweetener or Animal Cartilage.