Homemade Realistic Worms!

It’s always cool to have a really gross dish of treats out for Halloween and these Homemade Realistic Worms are definitely a winning recipe. My near-3-year-old freakin’ LOVED these and having them out for a Halloween party treat would be the best.

The worms are pretty straightforward to make. Basically they are a really sturdy gelatin mold that you mix with cream to produce a kind of milky texture. The cream also gives the worms some great color. Every time I’ve made them (more than once), I’m surprised at how realistic they look.

There are just a few simple ingredients for these guys. You can make 100 worms for under $10 depending on Oreo costs in your neck of the woods. They were definitely the most expensive part for me.

Realistic Homemade Worms

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3.13 from 41 votes

Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 10 Servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 7 hours hours

These are super fun to make and look SO realistic. SPOOKY!

Ingredients 

• 50 flexible party straws, cut in half or 100 full ones
• 1 6 ounce box of red Jell-o flavoring of your choice, raspberry, cherry, or strawberry are your options I think
• 4 packages gelatin.
• 4 Cups boiling water
• 1 Cup heavy cream
• 15 drops green food coloring
• 20 Oreo cookies, You could set the out without the dirt, but the dirt is pretty tasty honestly.
• Foil or wax paper
• An empty paper milk carton or a tall jar or plastic container to keep the worms in while they harden.

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Instructions

• Pour Jell-O and 4 packages of gelatin ingredients all into a large bowl and mix them up well. Make sure you don’t have areas of just gelatin or it might not distribute well and you’ll have jelly clumps in your worms!
• Add 4 cups of boiling water and stir it up well until everything is dissolved.
• Set the 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 block which will be very hard to re-liquefy.
• While your mixture is cooling, you can get your straws ready. The ones with the bendy necks work best because they give the end of the worm some texture. Make sure you extend the straws to the maximum length by pulling on the ends. Stretch them all out and then secure them with a rubber band so you have one big bundle. If you use the bendy neck straws, make sure to put the bendy necks at the bottom of your container!
• Once your bundle is together, stick it in a milk carton (washed).
• Once mixture is room temperature, add cup of cream. Mix it up well. Add green food coloring.
• Whisk the food coloring and everything together and then pour it over straws and fill up the container.
• Let this chill in your fridge overnight or for at least 4 hours.
• 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 of the straw, squeeze out the worm using your fingers! If the straw or your hands get slippery, have some paper towels on hand to dry out.
• Squeeze the worms out on the wax paper in a mound of crushed oreos to keep them from sticking.
• Toss the worms in the dirt and pile everything up in a big bowl!

Nutrition

Serving: 10Worms | Calories: 269kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 198mg | Potassium: 80mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 350IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 24mg | Iron: 3mg

Course: Appetizers, Desserts

Making the Worm Mixture!

If you’ve ever made Jell-o then you can probably handle this. First, get your Jell-o ready along with your 4 packages of gelatin.

Pour these ingredients all into a large boil and mix them up well. Make sure you don’t have areas of just gelatin or it might not distribute well and you’ll have jelly clumps in your worms!

This is how it should NOT look.

For regular Jell-o you mix some hot and some cold water but for this we want to use all hot water or we’ll run the risk of not dissolving everything well. That’s a LOT of gelatin in the bowl and want to make sure it gets all dissolved.

For regular gelatin users, there’s no need to “bloom” the gelatin for this recipe. By mixing it together with the Jell-o packet it distributes the gelatin crystals enough to avoid clumping.

Anyway, then add 4 cups of boiling water and stir it up well until everything is dissolved!

Cool the mixture

We need to add some cream to this, but don’t do it now! I made this mistake the first time I did it because I wasn’t thinking and my cream immediately curdled and I had to start all over. 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 block which will be very hard to re-liquefy.

Once your mixture is room temperature, add your cup of cream. Mix it up well.

Also add your green food coloring now which gives the worms a bit more bloody and doom-like coloring.

Note on the cream: It’s pretty hard to get your cream completely combined. It’s okay if there are some dots of cream in there. It also might separate a bit in the final product, but it should still harden without a problem.

Whisk the food coloring and everything together.

Worm molds

While your mixture is cooling, you can get your straws ready. The ones with the bendy necks work best because they give the end of the worm some texture. Make sure you extend the straws to the maximum length by pulling on the ends. Stretch them all out and then secure them with a rubber band so you have one big bundle.

You might think that 50 straws is a lot, but once you cut them in half it really doesn’t take that long to handle them. Once your bundle is together, stick it in your carton or container. I decided to use a very large, tall jar I use to store oatmeal normally.

In hindsight, I would’ve used a milk carton (washed obviously) because these straws were a pain in the neck to remove once they were solidified and with the milk carton you can just cut it apart.

One note on straws

If you use the bendy neck straws, 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. If I went to a Halloween party and they had non-textured worms, I would probably leave. Just saying.

Making the worms

Pour it over your straws and fill up your container. It probably won’t go all the way up the straws. Let this chill in your fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.

Ok. Now for the fun part. Cut apart your carton and get your straws separated from the mold. Then lay out 12 inches or so of wax paper or foil and starting from the non-bendy end of the straw, squeeze out the worm using your fingers! If the straw or your hands get slippery, have some paper towels on hand to dry out.

I like to make a little bed of crushed Oreos to help keep them separate.

I will say that it does take 15 minutes to actually get all the worms out of the straws. For me, it was fun for about the first 30 worms. Then it got old. If I would’ve had like two helpers it would’ve been perfect.

Want to see what I was talking about how I chose the wrong vessel for keeping the straws in place? I had to pry each straw out of this disaster:

A carton would’ve been much easier.

Making the dirt

Take 20 or so Oreos and remove the fillings with a spoon. Then give the cookies a spin in a food processor or you can just crush them up by hand. Toss the worms in the dirt and pile everything up in a big bowl!

This was kind of a long post, but now you know how to make worms!

These weren’t really that much work although if you’re like me, they will leave your kitchen and fingers covered with a faint red coating. But seriously, the final product is pretty cool I think.