Fruit juice, divided ½ cup
Unflavored gelatin 2½ tablespoons
Honey or sugar 1–2 tablespoons, optional
Lemon juice 1 teaspoon, optional


Pour ¼ cup of the juice into a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over it and let it sit for 5 minutes to bloom.
Warm the remaining ¼ cup juice in a saucepan over low heat. Don’t boil it.
Stir in the bloomed gelatin mixture until completely dissolved, about 1–2 minutes.
Add honey or sugar and lemon juice, if using, and stir until smooth.
Pour into silicone molds or a lightly greased small dish.
Refrigerate for 1–2 hours, until firm. If using a dish, cut into small pieces.
Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
For firmer gummies, use 3 tablespoons of gelatin. For vegetarian gummies, substitute about 1½ teaspoons agar-agar powder, bring the mixture to a brief boil, then pour into molds.

Okay, I made this recipe using fresh pomegranate juice. The gummies came out firm and well shaped, but do smell somewhat of beef due to the beef-sourced gelatin. And not in a good way. Also, after removing from the fridge and unmolding, I put in dehydrator at 100 F for 30 minutes which I was testing to try to dry and further firm them, and it looked good, so I pushed my luck and upped the temperature to 120 F and melted most of the beautiful shapes. Still, I recovered the blobs the best I could by separating them. They now sit in the dehydrator drying at room temperature.

To do it again, I’d look into fruit pectin versus gelatin to eliminate the beef smell, and ai said that gelatin could retain moisture and grow moldy so to use pectin for unrefrigerated storage, which is what I wanted. Maybe I’d go half gelatin half pectin because gelatin is nutritious and part of the appeal in gummies. That and needing to use up my tree full of pomegranates.