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Fruit snacks on a wire drying rack.

Homemade Fruit Snacks


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  • Author: Lexi
  • Total Time: 9 hours 50 minutes
  • Yield: 18-25 gummies 1x
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Description

With fresh fruit and just 3 other ingredients, you can make homemade fruit snacks that are chewy, delicious, and packed with real fruit flavor. You can also use this recipe to make gummy worms or gummy bears!


Ingredients

Units Scale

For any flavor:

  • 170-180g fresh fruit (~1 cup blended)
  • 2 envelopes (14g) gelatin
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey or agave

Strawberry:

  • 170-180g strawberry (~1 cup blended)
  • 2 envelopes (14g) gelatin
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey or agave

Pineapple:

  • 170-180g pineapple (~1 cup blended)
  • 2 envelopes (14g) gelatin
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey or agave

Watermelon:

  • 170-180g watermelon (~1 cup blended)
  • 2 envelopes (14g) gelatin
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey or agave

Grape:

  • 170-180g black seedless grapes (~1 cup blended)
  • 2 envelopes (14g) gelatin
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey or agave

Kiwi Apple:

  • 90g each kiwi and granny smith apple (peeled) (~1 cup blended - you may need to add some water to thin this out for blending)
  • 2 envelopes (14g) gelatin
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey or agave

Instructions

  1. Add fruit to blender and blend until completely smooth. 
  2. In a small container, sprinkle gelatin evenly over lemon juice, then stir thoroughly until there are no dry grains visible. Let sit for 5 minutes.
  3. While the gelatin blooms, combine fruit purée with honey or agave in a small saucepan over low heat, and stir until combined. You want to heat the purée enough to melt the gelatin (>~120˚F), but you don't want to bring it to a boil, which will denature the gelatin. NOTE: There's one major exception here. Pineapple (and some other fruits, including mango and kiwi) contains enzymes, including bromelain, that will essentially "eat" the gelatin and prevent the gummies from setting. To deactivate the enzyme, you must heat the pineapple purée to at least 176˚F for about 8 minutes.
  4. Add gelatin and lemon juice mixture to the fruit puree, and stir until it's completely dissolved. Remove pan from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.
  5. Give your silicon molds a light spray with avocado oil or cooking spray. Use a spoon or a dropper to fill up the fruit molds, then move to your refrigerator. Refrigerate for an hour and a half to let them set up.
  6. Remove from the molds and place on a wire rack, and let sit for 8 hours or overnight. The gummies will shrink significantly and achieve a more intense flavor and a chewy, gummy texture.
  7. Optional: If you are making these into sour gummy worms, toss the dried out gummies in a 4:1 mixture of sugar to citric acid before enjoying! 
  8. Once the gummies have dried out overnight, move them to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Notes

We made a berry champagne heart version for Valentine's Day, using raspberries or strawberries for the fruit, and adding 1 tbsp lemon juice + 2 tbsp champagne for the gelatin mixture. Otherwise, the recipe is the exact same!

Make these into gummy worms or gummy bears: It's the exact same process, you'll just need to use different molds for the shape. 

Make them sour: Once you dry out your gummies, you can toss them in a 4:1 mixture of sugar to citric acid. It's essential that the gummies are dried out before doing this.

Lightly spray your molds with cooking spray to ensure the gummies pop out easily.

Make sure you cook your pineapple to 176˚F for 8 minutes to ensure it sets properly. All other fruits only have to be heated to about 120˚F. Make sure the purée isn't boiling when you add the gelatin! This will ruin your gummies.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the top of the lemon juice evenly. This will help to prevent clumping by ensuring that each grain of gelatin is saturated with water. Let the gelatin "bloom" for a few minutes before adding it to the fruit purée.

It may be difficult to blend your fruit in a large blender. If this is the case, you can up the quantity of the recipe, or add a tablespoon or so of water to the blender to get things going. 

Don't worry about straining your fruit purées, just blend them well and you'll have no problems.

Once the gummies have dried out overnight, move them to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. 

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Passive Time: 9 hours 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Category: Snacks
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 20 fruit snacks
  • Calories: 304
  • Sugar: 61.5 g
  • Sodium: 32.1 mg
  • Fat: 0.6 g
  • Carbohydrates: 68.4 g
  • Fiber: 3.7 g
  • Protein: 13.5 g