Healthy Homemade Gummy Bears — Orange Flavored
These 5-ingredient Healthy Homemade Orange Gummy Bears are just like the storebought kinds — they’re soft, chewy, sweet and bursting with orange flavor! You’d never know they’re fat free, refined sugar free and all natural… YUP, that means no high-fructose corn syrup, artificial food flavorings, synthetic food dyes or preservatives whatsoever!
These Homemade Orange Gummy Bears are super chewy, sweet and addicting, you’d never know they’re made with a little secret ingredient.
Can you guess what it is? I’ll give you a few hints:
- It’s orange
- It’s crunchy
- A lot of people like it (but I hate it)
- Rabbits eat ’em
Secret Ingredient = Carrots!
Yes, these Homemade Orange Gummy Bears have carrots in them. But you’d never know it, I swear. You gotta trust me on this one. I absolutely despise the taste of raw carrots and I ate these Gummy Bears one after another, after another, after another. No carrot taste in the slightest.
To be completely honest, I’m probably not the best Nutritional Sciences student out there. I eat healthy and everything, but I definitely don’t eat enough vegetables on a daily basis. I mean, how could I when I have over 40 homemade Protein Bars stashed away in my freezer right alongside a big tub Chocolate Frozen Yogurt? And that’s not all… I always have a fresh batch of sweets in the fridge. Last week I had Peanut Butter Fudge and this week I have a triple-sized batch of Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Dip waiting for me. I swear, it’s calling my name right now.
Ohmygodmylifeisfallingapart.
Just kidding. Because I got some veggies in with these Healthy Homemade Orange Gummy Bears 😉
When KitchenAid® sent me their Juicer Attachment I was beyond excited, but a little nervous too — this is my first juicer and I’ve never juiced before in my life. My nerves flew out the window when I turned to my little “healthy food community” on Instagram. I asked what I should make with the juicer first and got a bunch of great ideas for some daily juice recipes. I knew right then that this was an opportunity for me to incorporate more vegetables into my diet. Rather than eating vegetables just at dinner and sometimes during lunch and snacks, I could now eat veggies for breakfast, snacks and dessert in the form of juices! I literally ran over (okay, I drove over) to Costco and got about 8,052 pounds (okay, more like ~25 pounds) of fresh, organic fruits and veggies to start juicing. I got organic spinach, kale, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and apples. Then I went to Whole Foods for some organic oranges and lemons.
As I was hauling all that fruit and veg up the stairs to my apartment, I planned on what desserts I should make with them. Juices? Smoothies? Applesauce? Nah.
I was craving oranges and then my Strawberry Gummy Bears popped into my head. Yup, gummy bears it is. I edited the recipe to use oranges instead of strawberries, and to add vibrant orange color (without using any food coloring) I added some carrots too.
About six or seven years ago, my dad had a health scare and decided to start living a healthy lifestyle (this is what made me so interested in nutrition!). He bought a (stand-alone) juicer but ended up absolutely hating it. My mom tried it out and pretty much wanted to chuck the thing out the window. It was clunky, it was heavy, it took up way too much counter space, it was loud and impossible to clean. Because of their bad experiences, I had a few negative preconceived notions about juicers…
But that changed about a week ago. I tried out the KitchenAid® Juicer Attachment and was totally shocked… in a good way. It didn’t have any of the problems my parents had with their juicer. Since it attaches to the head of your stand mixer, it doesn’t take up any counter space. Plus, it’s dishwasher safe (haaaallelujah), it extracts a ton of juice and it’s super easy to use. Even for me, the most technologically inept person on earth…
Grab some oranges and carrots and get on juicin’!
Healthy Homemade Orange Gummy Bears
Ingredients
- 4 Navel Oranges (to get 1⅔ cups OJ)
- 10 Carrots (to get ⅔ cup Carrot Juice)
- 1 tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
- 1 tsp Orange Flavor
- 60g (6 tbs) Unflavored Gelatin
Instructions
- Give the oranges a rinse, then slice off the orange peels with a sharp knife. It doesn't have to be perfect, just get the majority of the peel off. Slice the oranges in half.
- Wash the carrots, chop the ends off and then chop into 4" chunks (no need to peel the carrots).
- Attach the KitchenAid Juicer Attachment to your stand mixer fitted with the high pulp filter, then place a tall container underneath the juice opening and another container underneath what I call the "poop shoot."
- Turn the stand mixer on high speed and start juicing! Juice the oranges until you get 1⅔ cups worth of juice, and juice the carrots until you get ⅔ cup worth of juice.
- In a nonstick saucepan, stir together the orange juice, carrot juice, stevia extract and orange flavor with a rubber spatula. Stir in the gelatin, then let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Place the pan over medium/medium-high heat. Stir occasionally until the mixture begins to bubble. When it starts to bubble, stir constantly and keep it on the heat for ~2 more minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Place your gummy bear molds on a cookie sheet and then fill the molds with the gummy bear mixture (I use a ¼ cup measuring cup). Let cool on the counter for about an hour, then place the pan in the fridge. Refrigerate until firm (I leave them overnight). Refrigerate to store. Keeps for ~3 days.
Check out these Strawberry Gummy Bears, Green Apple Gummy Bears, Blueberry Fruit Snacks, and Peach Mango Fruit Snacks!
Enjoy 🙂
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With love and good eats,
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– Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
These sound really good. But not for anyone that is vegan or vegetarian because of the gelatin, in case you didn’t already know 🙂
Erin-
Yeah, I know gelatin isn’t vegan 🙂
That’s why I didn’t categorize this recipe in my vegan category. If you are vegan and are up for some recipe experimentation, feel free to try agar agar powder instead!
-Jess
arent there vegetable based gelatins?
Yes, you can use agar agar powder in place of the gelatin 🙂
This is so cool! I would love a juicer but they’re so expensive… WAHHH!!! oh well, I will just have to save up 😉 Maybe I could try these with store-bought orange and carrot juice?
PS. Your site is trying to mark my comment as spam… it’s also being quite sassy in the process. Just thought you should know!
Emily-
Sorry about that! I have no idea why my blog is being a jerk to you! I’m trying to figure out how to make sure your comments won’t be marked as spam but this might take a while… I’m SO BAD with technology. Hopefully I figure it out soon 🙂
And yup! storebought OJ and carrot juice should work just fine! I hope you like the gummies 😀
-Jess
Seriously I am a gummy bear fan and I am so happy to find a healthy recipe to make these!Making these soon!
Ami-
YAY! Then these DIY Gummy Bears should be perfect for you!
I hope you like the recipe 🙂
-Jess
Hi, I made these with storebought juice. I had no gummy bear shape, so I used a heart mold. They were delicious, but they broke when I tried to get them out of the mold! Maybe I didn’t get the ratio (liquid to gelatine) right… Are your gummy bears very firm and come out easily?
Julia-
My gummy bears were firm, just like storebought gummy bears. I’m not sure why yours broke… did you use the same juice/gelatin measurements as called for in the recipe?
-Jess
I want to make these but i am wondering is it possible to make them with just orange ? I dont want to add carrots
Aliaa-
Yup! 100% oranges will work just fine 🙂
Hope you like the gummy bears!
-Jess
ALIAA carrots are super good for you! And if you’ve ever had fresh carrot juice (or refrigerated store-bought carrot juice) it is so deliciously sweet you wouldn’t believe it! I used to make some almost every day, and it was so rich and sweet I thought I’d try some in my coffee like milk. Well, I ruined a cup of coffee but I still love carrot juice. Anyway I am making this recipe later today and the carrot juice will be making a featured appearance.
Hello! I love the site, it’s given me so many ideas for healthy snacks (I’m a serial snacker!). Quick question about these, have you made them without the orange flavoring? I can’t get organic flavoring in my country, and I’d rather not add any unnecessary chemicals to my food. But I don’t want the gummies to be flavorless either. Any ideas for substitutes or whatever are much appreciated. Thanks!
Agostina-
Hahaha! Serial Snacker! Love it 😉
As for the orange flavor, I haven’t tried this recipe without it. You can probably replace it with 2 teaspoons of orange orange zest. Zest an orange that hasn’t been through the juicer, you want fresh zest 😀
I hope you like the gummies!
-Jess
yes I was wondering if this Is diabetic friendly?
This is awesome! Thank you very much
They look so good!!
Do you feel the taste of the fruits?
Thank you for the recipe
I’ll have to try these for healthy snacks for my boys!
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These look so good i cant wait to try them!!
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