Even though my main mango tree didn't fruit this year because of trauma sustained in Hurricane Irma, one of its pups finally did for the first time. I didn't have an overabundance of mangoes, but I had several tasty ones that all came ripe at the same time.
A friend suggested making homemade mango gummies, which I'd never done before. It sounded simple enough and intriguing. SPOILER ALERT: Not so easy.
I lost my ever-loving mind in the store shopping for molds. SO MANY FUN CHOICES OMG!!
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| Food molds |
A friend was in the car with the AC running, keeping the groceries cold. We had just come from the grocery store to get gelatin and tons of chickens for Kitten. I didn't know fuckall about food molds, so I went in completely ignorant. I started texting photos to make sure this was what I was supposed to buy. And somewhere along the way, the giggles set in. I ended up hysterically laughing (to the point of tears) all by myself choosing these.
I began winnowing down the choices.
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| Narrowing my choices |
Until I ended up with these.
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| Final selection |
We cut up several mangoes and puréed them.
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| Chunks |
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| Liquefied |
Dissolved the gelatin in boiling water and mixed it in with the mangoes.
And finally carefully poured the mixture into the molds, with the excess going into plastic cups.
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| Filling the molds |
I very impatiently let them chill in the fridge for several hours.
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| Chilling and setting |
They still didn't seem as firm as gummies should, so I let them sit overnight. It turns out the mistake was in not quadrupling the gelatin amount. After searching a bit more, there is some controversy on whether or not mangoes contain bromelain, an enzyme that denatures protein. Next time, I will try only multiplying the gelatin amount. If that doesn't work, I will try boiling the mangoes.
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| amorphous blob or prehistoric terror? |
