Goody, Goody Gumdrops!

This is a recipe that I found before Christmas and I knew I just had to try it. They were fun to make, delicious, and my boys loved them!

Homemade Gumdrops

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 1/3 cups applesauce
2 packages (3 oz. each) red, or green gelatin
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

In a large saucepan, combine 2 cups sugar, applesauce, red or green gelatin, unflavored gelatin, and lemon juice; let stand for one minute. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Immediately pour into cold 11x7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until firm.

With a spatula, loosen gelatin from sides of pan. To remove, invert onto waxed paper. Using kitchen shears or small cookie cutters dipped in hot water, cut into 1-inch squares or shapes.

Place on waxed paper. Dry at room temperature for about 8 hours or until slightly sticky. Roll in remaining sugar. Store in an airtight container.

Yield: About 1 3/4 pounds. Makes 70 servings.

Nutrition information: 1 piece (out of 70) is 35 calories, trace fat, 0 cholesterol, 3 mg sodium, 9 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, trace protein.

Source: I found this on the Taste of Home website. You can find it here.

Notes: It was a lot of fun to make (my older son loved dipping the gummies into the sugar). I would definitely suggest NOT using cookie cutters for these. First of all, you would need really little cookie cutters, and if you had them, it would take approximately 12 billion years to cut out the shapes--and then you would have leftover pieces that would just go to waste. The squares were a lot easier to cut with kitchen shears--though these would look cute in heart shapes for Valentine's day. Since I cut these into squares, I ended up with a LOT more than just 70 pieces. My boys were also impatient and wanted to dip the pieces in sugar right after I cut them--instead of waiting 8 hours for them to dry. So, we dipped some in sugar right away and waited on the rest. Honestly, I didn't see the difference. If anything, they were a little more sticky (and therefore the sugar stuck to them easier) right after I had cut them. If you are impatient, just go ahead and dip them in sugar right after you cut them up.

I thought I had two 3 oz boxes of strawberry gelatin...but it turned out I didn't. One of the strawberry gelatin boxes was only .3 oz. I happened to have a 3 oz box of cherry...so I mixed cherry and strawberry and it still tasted great. You don't have to limit this to just red or green gelatin. Any kind would work.