Homemade Fruit Snacks

My kids love fruit snacks, but I hate them! So I searched Pinterest for a few days looking for options to make homemade ones, after making a few changes & adjustments I settled on this one.

• 2/3 Cup Fresh Orange Juice (lemon juice if you like sour gummies)
• 2/3 Cup Fresh or Frozen Berries (I like the triple berry blend, strawberries, raspberries & blueberries - but a plain berry would work just fine!)
• 2 TBSP honey
• 4TBSP (or 4 small packets out of the Knox brand) Original Gelatin - unflavored

Pour juice and berries into a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until berries become tender & begin to soften. 

Add honey & stir until completely incorporated. You will want the fruit to dissolve quite a bit until you have a compote - but it will still be thin. I like to smash the berries a little during this step to really let the flavors infuse. 

Puree in blender (Vitamix is THE BEST!) until it's a smooth liquid. 

Allow to set for 5-10 minutes, with the lid off the blender. 

Add in gelatin, 1tbsp at a time, mixing in between each tbsp added. You want your gelatin to be completely dissolved. 

Immediately pour into a pan. I used a smaller 7x11 pan I have and it worked great. 

Put into refrigerator for 30 minutes (I didn't even cover mine) then remove & cut. For the size pan I used I got 66 squares...6x11 cuts. I wanted them to be small squares to just hand to the kids. 

Nutritional Info (based on 7x11 pan), 1 small square

• 6 Calories
• 1 Carb
• 0 Fat
• 0 Protein
• >1g Sugar!!

So even if you let your kids have 10 squares

• 60 Calories
• 10 Carbs
• 0 Protein
• >10g Sugar

and compared to Kellogg's...

Kellogg's - Fruit Snacks

1. Servings:  10 pieces 1 pieces 1 container (25 pieces ea.)

Calories	70	Sodium	5 mg
Total Fat	0 g	Potassium	0 mg
Saturated	0 g	Total Carbs	17 g
Polyunsaturated	0 g	Dietary Fiber	0 g
Monounsaturated	0 g	Sugars	13 g
Trans	0 g	Protein	1 g
Cholesterol	0 mg

Here's the ingredient list copied directly from Kellogg's website...

CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, APPLE PUREE CONCENTRATE, WATER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, GELATIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CITRIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, COCONUT OIL*, CARNAUBA WAX, YELLOW #5, RED #40, SODIUM CITRATE, BLUE #1.*ADDS A TRIVIAL AMOUNT OF FAT.

I'm not even sure I know what half of those ingredients are?! And, these are a whole lot cheaper! 

Here's what mine looked like after 30 min in the fridge...

As you can see, they are really good size!

You could totally get cute & do these in silicone molds, but for me squares work just fine :) 

Do you make homemade fruit snacks? Share your recipe if you do! And if you try these, I would LOVE to know what you think of them!

Love & Hugs, 

Jenny