Matcha (Powdered Green Tea) Gummies

I have been obsessed with gummies for as long as I can remember, which I believe is due to my dad's love of Haribo Happy Cola gummi coke bottles. These little gummies featured in my childhood as incentive to finish dinner, homework, a hike... you name it, Happy Cola was the light at the end of the tunnel.

They kind of look like rocks.

When I found out how gummies can be made from scratch several years ago in a magical Japanese book pictured below, I was beside myself. I'd heard of the fancy, expensive gummies of Japan and fantasized about traveling overseas to sample them, but the gummi book gave me something almost as good, namely the tools to make my own superfancy gummies at home! Yes.

This book is so beautiful. Seriously.

What my gummies could have looked like instead of rocks... if only I had a mould!

This is the recipe I used, with a couple deviations. I can read some of this!!! Hurraaaaay

So yeah, the book is almost entirely in Japanese, and guess who doesn't read Japanese. This guy. It took me some months of puzzling things through but I used pictures, word repetition, a basic knowledge of how gummies work plus a couple other dorky techniques to decipher most of the key words in the book. I also learned the katakana alphabet, invaluable for being able to read the numerous loan words from English. Soooo rewarding to have my first recipe attempt come out so well, especially since I didn't have corn syrup or glucose on hand!

Mmmm so gummi!

Trying my first recipe from the book was the first thing I did once I had this house in Santa Monica to myself. That's right, I am housesitting in Santa Monica in an amazing two-story apartment with the most gorgeous bamboo floor in the universe! I'll be here for a month doing some research, reading on the beach and playing around with gummies. Ahhh summer... So good.

The above picture is of some gummies after I wet them; I wanted to see if washing some of the starch off would give them a more gummi-like appearance, but they look even more like river rocks than before, this time the slimy kind. How do you get gummies unsticky without destroying the glossy gummi finish? I don't know that it's possible... I'll have to play around with drying them out, or applying a very thin layer of starch with a paintbrush.

You can see a thin white shell on the top of the gummi up there. It was created in the starch-moulding process I used to make the pebble shape my gummies have. Because I didn't have a mould on hand, I made depressions in potato starch with a small spoon and filled the recesses with the warm molten gummi. It worked alright, but I would love to be able to see that rich color on the surface of the candy.


Recipe:
Matcha Gummies (adapted from Gummy Book pictured above)

Either gummi moulds or a bunch of starch (it can be reused after moulding)
1 1/2 tsp matcha powder
10 tsp + 1/2 cup hot water (just heat a bunch of water and measure from that)
5 tsp raw sugar (refined is fine)
4 tsp raw brown sugar
2 packets powdered gelatin (1/4 oz, 7g)

Spread starch out on a flat surface. Create imprints with a spoon or any other object of choice.
Place matcha powder in a small bowl or cup and add two teaspoons of hot water. Stir until a thick paste forms. Add the remaining 8 teaspoons of water one at a time, being sure to eliminate any lumps by pressing them against the side of the cup with the back of a spoon. You can also use a small whisk as the mixture gets looser, or, best case scenario, use a matcha whisk!
Add the matcha mixture to the 1/2 hot water and put over medium heat. Add the sugars and stir until melted completely.
Sprinkle both packets of gelatin over the top of the liquid, and mix until all lumps disappear. This will take a while! Turn the heat to low if it starts to boil.
Once the mixture is completely homogenous, making sure the heat is very low, take a spoonful and pour it into a little cup, swirling to coat the bottom. Stick it in the freezer for a minute or so and test for gumminess. If it isn't gummi enough, turn the heat up a bit and cook for a few minutes more. Test like this until amount of gumminess desired is achieved.
Spoon the molten gummi into the moulds or starch recesses and let set for several hours.

Soon I will try this recipe again, maybe with corn syrup, definitely paying closer attention to timing on the final steps of the recipe.

The matcha powder I used. $6!!

Finally, I will leave you with a delicious picture of the green tea mini KitKat bar my cousin Alec's girlfriend Christine gave to me after a day of sushi-fueled dress and makeup shopping. So good.
Mostly only available in Japan, along with a myriad of other specialty flavors, like all these (scroll down to 'standard finger bars')!

Bake Hard,
Azara