Lime Shamrock Gummies

It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day!  You know what that means… Green, green everywhere!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret… I LOVE St. Patrick’s Day.  For as long as I can remember, I always have.  When I was younger, my grandparents would throw these great parties, where everything was green.  Everyone was smiling, and having a good time.  That was more than likely from all the green beer, but to a kid, it felt like magic.

Since becoming a mom, my celebrating has definitely changed from when I was single.  No more parades, and no more green Jell-O shots.  Now it’s all about making sure that my kids wear green to bed the night before so their daddy won’t be able to pinch them first thing in the morning.  It’s getting to break out the St. Paddy's Day clothing and dressing as green as I want for 1 day only.  It’s warding off my kids pinches even though I’m wearing green, then retaliating when they finally get me.  Last, but not least, it’s the food.  The special foods made and reserved for only this time of year. 

First on my to do list this year was homemade Shamrock Lime Gummies.  Let’s think of these as the St. Patrick’s Day Virgin Jell-O Shot.

When I found these online, Homemade Gum Drops - A Mitten Full of Savings, it made me remember the old times, but something that was brought to today, for my kids and me. 

 

Here’s what you need:

Small Shamrock Cookie Cutter
2 cups Sugar
2 packets Unflavored Gelatin
1 ½ cups Applesauce
2 boxes of Lime Jell-O

•      The original recipe called for 3 oz each, but I’m pretty sure that was just a typo.  The boxes need to be 0.3 oz each.

• I used Sugar Free Jell-O.  This was going to my kids, and I figured there was already enough sugar in the recipe, they didn’t need more.

First, combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

Mix them all together.

On medium heat, keep stirring until the sugar mixture starts to boil. 

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**This is where I kept thinking about Dory from Finding Nemo.**

 

Once the mixture is boiling, let it boil for around a minute. 

**Be careful! Sugar boils at a much high temperature than water and if touched, it is harder to get off your skin than a shake of a wrist to get hot water off.  Be Careful!!**

Once you’ve let the gelatin and sugar mixture boil, carefully pour it into a greased 9x13 pan.

Next, stick it in the fridge until the gelatin sets.  I waited around 2 hours.

Before you take out your mold, pull out a cutting board and dust the top with sugar.

Gently pull your gelatin mold out of the pan.

**I used a butter knife and ran it along the edges of the mold to help loosen it from the pan.**

Flip it onto the sugar coated cutting board, and dust the top of your mold with sugar as well.

Bring out your shamrock cookie cutter, and start cutting.

 

Okay, now I’ve got to be completely honest.  I had a bit of a problem here.  My mold wasn’t completely hardened in the middle when I took it out of the fridge.  This is when I found that out because the mold was starting to stick to my cutting board and absorbing all the sugar I had dusted the cutting board with. 

I quickly cut all the shamrocks in the mold and took a spatula to get them off the cutting board.

Once I got them off, I placed them on another cutting board and re-dusted them with sugar.  Then, I stuck them back in the fridge for another thirty minutes.  Crisis adverted!

Bam! We had a cute little collection of homemade gummies.  Better yet… shamrock gummies!

Now I was stuck.  I had no idea how to store these things, so I did a little experimenting.  What I found was that these can be stored in the fridge or out of the fridge.  So there are no worries that you’re going to wake up and find green goo at the bottom of a bowl because your shamrocks melted when you stored them on the counter.  Yes, the thought had crossed my mind…  Just make sure they are stored somewhere airtight so they’ll stay fresher, longer.

*****Family Verdict*******

Most of us, me included, thought they were okay.  We’re not very big on lime flavored things though.  We all thought that strawberry would make for a better flavor.

However, this did not include my 15 year old boy.  He couldn’t get enough.  He even ate the remnants that were left over from cutting the shamrocks.  They were a BIG hit with him.

I think it boils down to flavor preference is all. 

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So I think this was a fun thing to start off this St. Patrick’s Day holiday. 

These would be perfect little treats for any party, or just something to get your family excited for the holiday. 

My kids are already planning how to ambush me that day.  This should be interesting…

Comment below and tell me what you think of this festive gummy!

What is YOUR favorite Jell-O flavor?

Stay tuned for more DIYs to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

Until then…

Happy DIY-ing!!! 

St. Patrick's Day Fact from Global News...

"Dublin Airport is offering words of wisdom for North American travelers explaining that “St. Patty’s Day” or “Patty’s Day” are not to be used. The reason? Patty is a nickname for Patricia, and Saint Patrick was—as you may have gathered—not a woman named Patricia.
So get out the double D’s: St. Paddy’s Day works because it comes from Padraig – a version of the Irish name Patrick."

For more facts you might not know, click here.