Dairy-free milk gummies (GAPS)

Milk gummies that are dairy- and sugar-free

Kids love to help. Seriously! I thought this is a myth up until I had mine. She is a great little helper! Very committed, very focused, filling up the washing machine, arranging clothes on the dryer stand, watering the plants, mopping up (with whatever comes handy), and of course helping around the kitchen: chasing naughty carrot slices rolling around the table, cutting out cookies with cute cookie cutters. Our latest kitchen project also involved cutting with little cookie cutters, the gummies. We have created a super easy, 100% kids friendly, awesomely healthy snack which comes handy between meals, on the go, even at kids' parties would be fast disappearing favourite.

You will need:
100 g creamed coconut (Biona Organic or Essential Organic for example)
1 cup (250 ml) filtered water
1 heaped tsp honey
2 tsp unflavoured gelatin

1. Boil the water. Add the creamed coconut, stir to dissolve. Just before it would reach boiling point again, take the pan off the heat. If you want to make sure all the coconut is dissolved immerse a hand blender (this step is optional).
2. Let it cool down a bit from hot to warm.
3. Add the honey and stir to dissolve.
4. Add the gelatin powder bit by bit stirring continuously to dissolve it completely.
5. Brush a glass dish (we have used a pyrex lid) with a little coconut oil, then pour in the coconut milk.
6. When the milk is cold enough, put the glass dish into the refrigerator for a few hours.
7. When set, take the cooled coconut milk out of the fridge, choose your shapes and start cutting.

This is were the fun begins. Cutting, sampling and cleaning up the leftovers. Have fun, share, and enjoy!

Tips: You can use canned coconut milk, for convenience. Personally, I do not like the taste of canned coconut milk, nor the grayish color of the product, but most of all, the aluminium can with BPA coating gives me worries.

To make this yummy treat vegan friendly, substitute the honey with maple syrup or coconut nectar, and the gelatin with algae, agar-agar or carrageen.

This is a basic recipe. Creamy, mild tasting yummyness. Second or third time you can shake it up a little with a bit of ground turmeric. It will add colour, also anti-inflammatory. You can add Vitamin C powder (magnesium ascorbate). You can add probiotics. Just mix in the content of a capsule right before pouring the milk into the glass dish. You can add mashed berries for more colour.

You can pour milk through a sieve to remove any coconut bits for silky smooth gummies. Explore and experiment!

[i] For more GAPS recipe ideas please visit my GAPS recipes selection.