Don’t even get me started on the term “fruit snacks” when there’s not any fruit involved.
You can guess what I think about those sugar-filled candies being served as snacks.
On the other hand, these homemade fruit gummies have two healthy ingredients: real fruit and gelatin (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!).
You’ve probably heard me talk about gelatin before. It’s the gel on your chicken stock, it’s the component of bone broth that makes it so healing to your gut and it can be used to make delicious and healthy snacks.
RELATED: Read more about the benefits of gelatin here.
Why Homemade Gummies?
Homemade gelatin squares or fruit gummies are the best way I know of to help my kids consume gelatin, which is as close to a health supplement for joints and immunity as anything else. Homemade gelatin squares and fruit snacks are wayyyyy better than cajoling and begging, “Just drink your broth. It’s an important part of the soup!”
Perfect Supplements gelatin makes our homemade snacks not only fun but healthy – the cattle from which the gelatin is sourced are raised on pasture, no grain finishing at all. Gelatin is a huge boost for hair, skin, nail and joint health – you won’t get that in a box of powder. (Use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!)
And it’s virtually odorless and tasteless, so no – your homemade gummies won’t taste like beef.
Homemade Fruit Gummies
These little treats are often billed on blogs as “homemade fruit snacks” but I think that’s a bit misleading.
These may be more accurately called “gellies,” because they don’t really have the same properties as a fruit snack or gummy candy, and they’re not shelf-stable.
But they’re fun – and actually made of fruit!
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Homemade Fruit Gummies Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 1.5 cups
- Category: snacks
Description
Make real fruit into bite-sized, totally gummable gellies – super for babies in high chairs and awesome for school lunches and classroom snacks, even if kids have allergies!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 c. blueberries (or other fresh fruit), divided
- 2 Tbs. grassfed gelatin
Instructions
- Measure 1 c. berries into a small saucepan.
- Cook over medium-low heat and stir and mash into a puree or use an immersion blender. (Alternately you could blend the berries in a blender all together and put 2/3 c. in the pot and 1/3 c. cold.)
- With the immersion blender, blend 1/2 c. berries in a jar or dish. (This can be tricky with such a small amount. Use the big blender if need be.)
- Sprinkle gelatin (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!) into the cold berry puree and mix.
- Once the cooked berry puree is bubbling, pour it into the cold mixture.
- Blend it all up together with the immersion blender.
- Pour into a small glass dish or casserole dish (about a cm deep or less is good for the poured mixture).
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
- Once gelled semi-solid, you can cut into any size cubes you like.
- Store in the refrigerator, NOT at room temp like purchased “gummy” snacks.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 cup
- Calories: 29
- Sugar: 3.6 g
- Sodium: 5 mg
- Fat: 0 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 5.3 g
- Fiber: 0.9 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: healthy snack
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They last only about a week in the fridge, so don’t save them for a rainy day!
These little gellies surprised me by becoming a new finger food for our 9-month-old, who had a pretty limited diet at the time simply because he hadn’t been introduced to much yet. They’re not exactly mess-free (<<<understatement!) so you can’t take them to church or anything, but they’re wonderful for the high chair tray – an incredible way to have fruit for the pincer grasp age that you don’t have to worry about with choking.
We made them in four different ways, and my kids had strong opinions about some of them.
We tried:
- 1/2 c. heated water mixed into 1 c. cold blueberry puree with 2 Tbs. gelatin
- 1 c. heated blueberry puree mixed into 1/2 c. cold water with 2 Tbs. gelatin
- gelatin directly into hot mashed berries
- cooked berry puree mixed into cold berry puree with gelatin + the immersion blender
At first, I really wanted to have water involved because I thought I might need to dissolve the gelatin in cold water, but that really detracted from the blueberry flavor. The kids thought they were pretty boring, and they were mostly right.
For babies, those were no problem though. The heated berries are such a pretty color that it’s worth doing it that way. See them on the right of the plate above?
When I tried the actual recipe I had found online which instructed me to simply mix gelatin into hot mashed berries, the gelatin couldn’t dissolve and made little chunks of gel in the gummies – as I suspected. It’s terrible!
Directions on high-quality gelatin always say to mix into cold liquid first – and they aren’t kidding! Anytime I try to cheat the system and mix into hot liquid, we end up with gel chunks. They’re really gross. Don’t bother.
That’s one reason I decided to mix the final recipe with the immersion blender and not just the berries. Then it poured beautifully like this:
Kid-Friendly Healthy Homemade Snack
In addition to being a kid favorite for eating, this is a great recipe for kids to help with or make on their own! Kids can help wash the berries, measure and cut the gellies at a young age and once they’ve learned to use the stove and blender.
Mini cutters like these can make fun shapes to coordinate with the season or holidays. Those are totally optional though. Plain squares are awesome too!
Be sure to make these other gelatin recipes as well:
- Gelatin squares made with juice
- “Candy corn” gelatin squares
- Immune boosting gummies
- Chocolate gummies
Katie Kimball, CSME is a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks. She is passionate about researching natural remedies and making healthy cooking easier for busy families. She’s been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine as well as contributing regularly on the FOX Network. 
A mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is a Certified Stress Mastery Educator and member of the American Institute of Stress.
