Worms of Doom (LC, GF, SF)

Ahhh, back again! I’ve been crazy busy the last few weeks with training, family and weekends away!

My twins had their 6th birthday last week and on Saturday we’re having their Halloween-Birthday party! A lot of the food at the party will be catering to little 6-year-olds, which means there is sugar involved, but there’ll be some other things too. One of the “frightfully” yummy dishes, will be the worms of doom!

They are easy to make, low-carb friendly, gluten-free and quite yummy!

So here we go!

 

 

You will need:

 

2 packs (6 oz.) of sugar- free raspberry Jell-O  gelatin mix (strawberry or cherry work too)

3 envelopes of plain gelatin

3 cups of boiling water

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

green food coloring

 

100 bendy straws

1 rubber band

1 empty milk or orange juice carton

Wax paper

 

Preparation:

In a bowl or Pyrex measuring dish, place all the gelatin and mix well with a whisk. You want all the gelatin to be incorporated evenly.

Boil 3 cups of water and our into the gelatin. Please make sure you boil all the water - no ice water short cuts here! This is a lot of gelatin, so we need all the water to dissolve it properly!

See how it even looks too thick with just 2 cups?

 

 

Stir the water and the gelatin together until it’s dissolved. Now we need to cool the mix down to room temperature. Don’t skip this step!

We need to add some cream to this too, but don’t do it now! Your cream will curdle and your worms won’t turn out!  To do it correctly, set your bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes until the liquid is room temperature.  SET A TIMER because if you forget about it, it will turn into a very large red Jell-O lump and you’ll have to start over.

So, while that’s cooling down (did you remember to set the timer?!) cut the top off your milk carton, so you have an even square opening on top. Rinse and dry your carton and set aside.

Make sure you extend the straws to the maximum length by pulling on the ends.  Stretch them all out and then place a rubber band around them to keep them together in a nice bundle.

 

 

Place your bundled straws into the milk carton!

Make sure to put the bendy necks at the bottom of your container!  If they are at the top, your mixture might not fill up high enough to get to the bendy part and you’ll have non-textured worms.

 

As you will see, I didn’t use a milk carton because I got it in my head that you would be able to see better what I was doing if I used a  clear vessel. Well, that part is true, but let me tell you, it was a bit of a pain removing the straws from this! I had to pull them out one by one, while with a milk carton, you can just cut it off! So do yourself a favor and use the easy route!

Now it’s time to get the mix out of the fridge.

Stir in your cream and about 12-15 drops of green food coloring to get a reddish brown, which is more “worm like.” Your cream may curdle just a little anyway, but that’s ok, it won’t be visible later!

 

 

 

Now you will thank me that I told you to use a measuring jug, because you can pour the mix straight into all the straws.

Yes, there will be some coming out at the bottom and come up on the sides around the straws, but that’s ok.

 

 

Once all the mix is poured over the straws, chill your straws for at least 8 hrs. or over night.

Don’t worry that the straws will all be unevenly filled and most won’t come anywhere near the top. It’s all good!

 

Ok. Now for the fun part. After everything is chilled,  cut apart your carton and get your straws separated from the mold.  Then lay out 12 inches or so of wax paper and starting from the non-bendy end push it down with your non-dominant hand and use the thumb of your dominant hand to push the worms out on the top!

 

One down, 99 to go!

See how the cream sank a little! It’s like an automatic color gradient on these! Cool, huh?

 

Once you squeeze the worms out on the wax paper and have an even row of worms, put another layer of wax paper right on top of the worms and keep squeezing!  I did 3 layers.  Then add one more layer of wax paper over the very top layer and you can roll up the worms in a nice little package and refrigerate! These can be made up to 2 days ahead!

 

 

To make the dirt, use any kind of low-carb or gluten-free chocolate cookie and grind finely in your food processor. Then toss with the worms.

For the kids, I used the outside of some Oreo cookies, scraping the filling off with a spoon first and then powdered it in a food processor.

 

 

Of course, you quick thinking minds will have worked out that this method could also be used to make regular worms - without the doom! You can use any kind of Jell-O flavoring in that case, you can add cream or not - just keep with the basic liquid to gelatin ration and you’re golden! If you’re making two colored ones, use half the gelatin and make two batches. Use one first, let it set in the straws, then make another batch in a different color/flavor and pour it on top!

If you wanted to make sour gummy worms, proceed as above, then roll the worms in a mix of ascorbic acid (powdered vitamin C, which provides the sour) and powdered erythritol!

 

Oh and just a little word of caution - don’t let these sit in the sun! It seems obvious I know, but I left them sitting on the kitchen counter after I photographed them and returned to worm-of-doom soup!

They do however hold up fine sitting for a while at room temperature, just don’t let them get too warm.