So, I’m always up for trying new and exciting ingredients in my cooking. Recently, I’ve been dabbling a little bit into candy making, only because recent health issues have insured that I can no longer eat a lot of the foods that I enjoy.

Here’s the jist on that problem. A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with delayed immune sensitivity response, or delayed-type hypersensitivity, to dairy. Before, I was just labeled lactose intolerant, but now it has somewhat…evolved. What this means is that my body pretty much considers dairy a toxin, so I sweat a lot, get migraines, and depending on the amount, even throw up. It looks at it the way it looks at diseases.

Because of this, a lot of the foods that I once enjoyed I’m now trying to find alternatives to. One thing I enjoy is “froyo” with gummy bears. I’m trying my hand at making vegan frozen yogurt (still trying), but I also decided that why not try making healthier homemade gummy bears, too? I mean how hard can it be? It’s actually not hard at all, as long as you keep an eye on it and make sure the temperature of the sugar syrup is right, but that’s a whole different story.

I’ve tried Agar Agar as a gelatin substitute for a while now, but I just recently heard about vegetable gelatin from Le Sanctuaire off of Gilt. Le Sanctuaire’s Vegetable Gelatin is obviously in powder form and is made from harvested seaweed.

This vegetable gelatin in Le Sanctuaire’s 4mular line not only gels liquids, but also suspends ingredients in them (think chocolate in chocolate milk, or the fruit puree in a raspberry vinaigrette), thickens and binds. Derived from various seaweed species harvested from Brittany to Bali, it’s a great gelatin alternative for vegetarians and vegans. - Gilt

So, I bought some. I’m curious to see how it works. Gilt Taste is invite only, and yes, they have sections for meat, seafood, etc, but just search “vegan” and you’ll find products from Babycakes NYC, Vegan Divas, etc. If you’d like to join Gilt Taste - along with Gilt Groupe, Gilt City, Jetsetter, and Park & Bond - here’s an invite. Enjoy.