In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Flint Lockwood is an inventor living on the small island of Swallow Falls; an island that survives on its sardine industry. Since he knows that there has to be more to life than just sardines, he invents the FLDSMDFR (short for the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator), a machine that converts water molecules into food molecules. And much to everybody's surprise - it works!
The FLDSMDFR causes food to rain from the sky, to the delight of the whole town. From cheeseburgers to enormous jello molds to mountains of ice cream (snow day!) to bacon and eggs, everybody's request was met. But soon, food waste started to build, and people turned greedy, and that all-out giant food-storm that I mentioned threatened to wipe out the recently renamed Chewandswallow (formerly Swallow Falls). Giant spaghetti twisters, giant walking roast chickens, dangerous ears of corn, and of course - GIANT EVIL GUMMY BEARS!
Although there were all sorts of fun directions I could have gone with this one, it was the gummy bears that won out in the end. All the kids voted for them, so gummy bears it was. Now, it was a bit of an experiment, as I'd never made gummies from scratch before. And I'm not really sure if you can call it "from scratch" since I used a package of sweetened flavored gelatin mix as one of the ingredients, but a girl's gotta start somewhere.
These gummy bears are incredibly simple and fast to make. All you need is unflavored gelatin and flavored gelatin mix (like Jell-o). In 20-30 minutes, you (and by you, I mean your totally mean your kids, duh) will be biting the heads off of giant evil gummy bears like nobody's business.
The only complaint that I have about making them this way is that they basically taste like finger jello (or jigglers). I think by using fruit juice or puree, some sweetener, and some unflavored gelatin, that could be remedied. It's a project for the future, so stay tuned for the results. But really, if you have kids, this is the perfect project to make after watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with them!
Homemade Gummy Bears
Learn to make gummy bears (or any gummy-candy) at home with this easy method that uses 3 ingredients, and is ready in minutes!
by
Prep Time: 20-25 minutes
Cook Time: n/a
Keywords: dessert snack nut-free soy-free gelatin candy
Ingredients (10 giant gummies - varies depending on the size of your mold)
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 2 (1/4 ounce) packets unflavored gelatin
- 1 (3 ounce) box gelatin dessert, any flavor (Jell-o brand or store brand will work)
- candy molds (I used these somewhat giant gummy bear ice cube tray molds)
- baking sheet
Instructions
Place your molds on a small baking sheet; set aside.
Put the water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the unflavored over the water first, followed by the flavored gelatin. It won't all sink in, but that's okay. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
Place sauce pan over medium-low heat and whisk until gelatin is dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. When mixture is liquid and all gelatin has dissolved, remove from heat. Carefully pour the liquid into your molds. Since I hate to dirty extra dishes, I just poured straight from my small saucepan. But if you like, you can pour the mixture into a squeeze bottle or a measuring cup with a spout (something for easy pouring) first, and then fill your molds.
Place them (baking sheet and all) into the freezer for 15-20 minutes. They should peel out of your molds easily, if they don't, return them to the freezer for a bit longer.
-slightly adapted from Skip to my Lou
If you'd like to join us next month, our host Caroline at Caroline Makes has chosen Funny Girl as our September flick.
Would you like to host a round of Food 'n Flix in 2015? Check out the Food 'n Flix Hosting Schedule to see which months are still open (only 2 at this point!). If you'd like to host, just shoot me an email with the month you want, and the movie you want us to watch and cook from.
