Gelatinous Gut Goodness – Dinosaur Chews

I’ve always shied away from using powdered gelatin in recipes, possibly due to years of watching Masterchef competitors screw up panna cottas. If they couldn’t get it right, surely I wouldn’t be able to!

I am aware of the health benefits of gelatin, and have been making my own chicken bone broth for some months, which is much cheaper than buying packaged chicken stock. I take a particular pride in achieving a golden ‘gel’ on the top of my ten-hour broth. Georgia at Well Nourished has provided an excellent overview of the benefits of bone broth and a recipe. She also provides ideas on how to use bone broth every day. In my experience, you don’t need to use a freshly cooked chicken carcass and bones. When we roast a whole organic chicken, or bake a batch of chicken wings, I save and freeze all the bones in giant ziplock bags. First thing on stock day, I simply dump the frozen bones into my massive stock pot, along with the frozen vegetable odds and ends that I’ve saved along the way (carrot peel, celery ends, onion and garlic peel, herbs). Georgia suggests using apple cider vinegar, which helps to extract the gelatin from the bones.

Powdered gelatin, however, has never been on the menu, until I came across this recent article by Sarah Wilson and her recipe for coffee almond gummy squares. I have been wanting to make a healthy ‘lolly’ for my kids, so I used Sarah’s easy method to make gelatin chews in chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavours. In dinosaur moulds, of course. Continue reading →