Healthy Homemade Fruit Snacks — Strawberry Flavored
You’ve surely seen my Healthy Homemade Gummy Bears right?? Well, I keep getting asked, “What’s the difference between your gummy bears and fruit snacks?” The gummy bears are super chewy and “gummy” while the fruit snacks are softer and your teeth sink straight through (kind of like pate de fruit)! Both are amazingly delicious, but I had to make both because I love gummy bears but my sister loves fruit snacks. I made these Healthy Fruit Snacks for my big sis because we’re going to the movie theatre soon and need to sneak in some healthy treats (we ain’t paying $9 for a big tub of trans fat-filled popcorn, naw thanks).
Those prepackaged “Fruit Snacks” from the grocery store and vending machines get on my nerves… with their shiny blue packages claiming they’re “Made With REAL Fruit” and “FAT FREE” (when in reality it’s really just straight up corn syrup, sugar, and artificial food coloring). This healthy homemade version is actually made with real fruit, and no corn syrup, sugar, or synthetic food dyes in sight!
These Healthy Fruit Snacks are sweet, soft, chewy and packed with fresh strawberry flavor.
But wanna know what makes this recipe really great? It requires only 5 ingredients!! This recipe took quite a bit of tweaking to get juuuust right. I think I made a trial batch every weekend for a little more than a month (the checkout employees at Costco must’ve been wondering why I was buying so many darn strawberries on a weekly basis…)
In my 1st trial (and probably the worst trial of them all), the fruit snacks were a complete disaster. I could taste the gelatin (EW… like, BIG ew) and there was gelatinized foam on the surface of the gummies. Not very appetizing. Oh, and I didn’t strain the mixture so there were eighty billion strawberry seeds in every gummy. I hate seeds with a passion. I’d like to have a treat without having to whip out some floss! Plus, storebought fruit gummies are totally seedless (mostly because they are basically 100% corn syrup)
In my 2nd trial, the texture was more like Pate de Fruit. I love Pate de Fruit so this wasn’t a huge issue with me, but I was aiming for that slightly gummy fruit snack texture! Also, I didn’t strain the mixture well so some seeds ended up in the gummies, but definitely not as much as the first trial.
In my 3rd trial, I used a little too much lemon juice so they were really tart. Delicious (and SEEDLESS thanks to my new nut milk bag!) but not authentic-tasting.
In my 4th trial, I got the perfect amount of strawberry flavor and a really good texture… like in between Pate de Fruit and Gummy Bears. These Healthy Fruit Snacks are YUM!
These Healthy Fruit Snacks are totally drool-worthy. BIG taste, mini package.
Healthy Homemade Strawberry Fruit Snacks
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups Fresh Strawberry Puree
- ¾ cup Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed)
- ¾ tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
- 15 drops Natural Red Food Coloring
- 40g (¼ cup) Unflavored Gelatin
Instructions
- Wash your strawberries, slice the greens off and puree in a blender. Measure 1¾ cups of the puree and place in a medium-sized bowl.
- Stir in the lemon juice, stevia extract, and natural food coloring.
- Hold open a nut milk bag over a large bowl while you pour the strawberry mixture into the bag. Squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out as you can. You should get 2¼ cups of the mixture after straining.
- Pour the strained mixture into a nonstick saucepan, sprinkle the gelatin overtop, and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir it together and smush any big clumps of gelatin, don't worry about the small ones, they'll dissolve).
- Place the pan over medium-high heat and stir occasionally, until it comes to a light boil. Stir constantly when the mixture boils harder. When you can't stir the bubbles away, keep it on the heat for 30 seconds and then remove from the heat.
- Let the mixture sit for a few minutes so the foam/bubbles have a chance to dissolve. Carefully scoop the mixture into your silicone molds of choice (I used a variety of gummy bear molds, Hershey "Kiss" molds, and square molds). Let cool slightly on the counter, then transfer the molds into the fridge. Refrigerate until firm. To store, keep the gummies in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.
I really want to make these fruit snacks with other flavors soon (like raspberry, blueberry, grape, orange, maybe even lemon or lime) but I think I’ll stick with what I know is good for now 😉
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With love and good eats,
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– Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
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Gelatin is a yellowish, odorless, and nearly tasteless substance that is made by prolonged boiling of skin, cartilage, and bones from animals. It’s made primarily from the stuff meat industries have left over — we’re talking about pork skins, horns, and cattle bones
This looks so good! What a great way to enjoy a treat while still only eating the good stuff!
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
I would say they keep for ~3 days in an airtight container in the fridge! 🙂