pear squares

Paleo gummies are simple, beautiful, and healthy paleo candy made with gelatin powder.

They make it easy to get your gelatin in. They look fab in a candy dish, and they are also one of my favourite grab-and-go foods.

Although they look like sugar bombs, these gummies are of course much less sweet than commercial refined-sugar candy. You can adjust the sweetness to your taste by adding a natural sweetener such as Stevia.

The juicer works spectacularly for making gummies from apples, oranges, pears, lemons, or limes, for example, but these can also be squeezed by hand.

The two-textured effect with pear gummies is achieved by frothing the liquid well with a whisk or hand blender. Pour the liquid into the mould while you still have that frothy top layer, and it will set to create a spongy top. The wonderful sweetness of the pear, combined with this double texture, make these one of my favourite gummies.

• Use high-quality organic non-GMO, grass-fed, unflavoured gelatin powder. ( I use Great Lakes brand.)
• Adding the gelatin powder to a little bit of water before stirring it into the recipe can help it dissolve evenly.
• Keep the heat gentle, since you don’t want to boil the gelatin or the heat will break down its bonds.
• Although I’ve used Truvia here, you could instead sweeten your gummies with honey — or straight Stevia, if you’re avoiding the sugar-alcohols.
• To ball-park the volume of liquid for your candy moulds, check the volume of your mould (if it isn’t written on the mould, just fill the mold with water and then pour the water off into a measuring cup. For example, the mini-hearts mould I have holds 100 ml of liquid, so I adjust and simmer to get roughly that amount before filling the mould. When I have a bit left over, an ice-cube tray works well as a mould for the excess.
• Silicon candy moulds work great for jellies, but so does a regular old ice cube tray, brownie tin, or maybe you have other baking dishes or trays with neat shapes.
• Yes, gummies freeze well! I freeze mine in paper towels, inside an air-tight glass container. Thaw them on a paper towel since they will give off a bit of water.
• Not any old fruit will work for jellies. The enzymes in some fruits will not allow the gelatin to set. These include cranberries, pineapple, kiwi, and papaya.