You only need 2 ingredients and 10 minutes to make DIY finger gelatin (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!) squares! They’re a healthy, homemade version of jello squares! You’ll definitely want to add these to your list of easy snacks and lunch box additions along with these healthy pumpkin muffins.
One of the greatest joys of my kitchen is watching my kids devour and truly enjoy real, nourishing food, especially when it’s not particularly kid-friendly in most people’s eyes.
I’m proud of them for being counter-cultural.
The second best kitchen moments in the Kitchen Stewardship® household?
Successfully making fun food that looks like other kids’ food but is devoid of synthetics and yucky ingredients and watching my kids enjoy that.
It’s good for them to feel normal sometimes, too.
How to Make DIY Gelatin Squares with 100% Fruit Juice
The first time I tried this technique, I thought I must have missed a step.
Not because it didn’t work, but because it was SO easy that I kind of can’t believe people pay for premixed fruity gelatin in boxes.
Jello has always been one of those enigmas in the junk food world. Somehow it got a reputation for itself that it’s part of a normal meal, a side dish instead of a dessert – even though it’s ultimately jiggly sugar water with artificial flavors and colors and as close to candy as anything else.
It’s still dessert in my book – unless I make it myself.
Then it’s 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 gelatin squares won’t taste like beef.
Watch My Kids Make These Gelatin Squares on the News
Can’t see the video? Watch on YouTube here!
Making homemade gelatin, either to eat with a spoon or to pick up with your hands, only has two ingredients and 6 steps. Which makes it the perfect recipe for little kids to help with. Older kids can help with the stove work.
Love baking with your kids?
Empower them and build their confidence with the Holiday Baking Challenge from Kids Cook Real Food!
100% Fruit Juice Gelatin Squares Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 12 squares
- Category: snacks
Description
No need for a box for Jello! Make it yourself with 2 ingredients and 5 minutes, plus the health benefits of grassfed gelatin (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!).
Ingredients
- 3 c. 100% (grape) juice, divided
- 1/3 c. + 1 Tbs. gelatin
Instructions
- Heat 2 c. juice gently in a pot until it’s not boiling, just steaming a little and hot/painful to touch.
- Measure 1 c. cold juice.
- Sprinkle gelatin over the cold juice and whisk thoroughly.
- Pour the heated juice into the cold juice and whisk thoroughly.
- Pour into a glass baking dish to the desired height (8×8 works great).
- Chill at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. When firm, cut into squares with a butter knife or use cookie cutters to make shapes.
- Store in the refrigerator up to one week.
Notes
Want to make gelatin you can eat with a spoon (like a DIY Jello cup)? Easy. Do the same thing but with 3 cups juice heated in the pot and only 2 Tbs. gelatin. I make it and store it right in my 4-cup glass measuring cup.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 63
- Sugar: 11 g
- Sodium: 10 mg
- Fat: 0 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 11 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 4.5 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: healthy snacks, kid-friendly
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Healthy Gelatin Square Recipe Step-by-Step
My daughter helped take the pictures. She was so sweet! This is actually our “thing” to do together, ever since we made it for the first time. We even made the “finger jello” for her class party once (and yep, kids ate them!).
Start by heating 2 cups of 100% fruit juice gently on the stove – not to a boil, but until you start to see steam and it hurts to dip your finger in. Meanwhile…
Measure a cup of cold juice – any 100% fruit juice will do except pineapple juice. We always get the huge jugs of 100% grape juice from Costco.
You’ll need 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon high-quality unflavored gelatin. Perfect Supplements gelatin works like a dream.
Sprinkle gelatin in slowly and whisk thoroughly. It’s a lot of gelatin, so be sure to get it mixed in until there aren’t dry spots or chunks:
It will thicken up quickly so do keep it moving!
Now go get that hot juice in the pot to make the magic happen!
Pour it into the gelled up juice and whisk well.
Once the mixture is uniform and there aren’t any gelatin chunks, pour the gelatin-juice mixture into a glass dish – and 8×8 glass baking dish will work, or an oval ceramic baker, or pictured is a Pyrex 9×11 glass dish. Really, anything goes.
Tuck in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours…and that’s it! Cut into any shapes you like, either just squares with a butter knife, or use cookie cutters to make other shapes. We did hearts for Valentine’s Day!
Be sure to make these other gelatin recipes as well:
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.
