Homemade Fruit Snacks

When I was pregnant with my second son, I saw a video of someone making their own peach rings – I love peach ring candies. The whole point of the video was to make them from scratch with healthier ingredients, and so I wanted to try it myself. The experiment did not go as I hoped. They didn’t taste as good as real peach rings, they really didn’t look all that appetizing, and the texture was definitely not what I wanted. So then I thought what else can I do with these molds I bought and this left over agar agar powder (a substance similar to gelatin but made from seaweed).

The molds I bought came with ring molds, as well as hearts, gummy bear, and dinosaurs. So I thought, why not make our own fruit snacks as a fun activity with my toddler? I don’t buy fruit snacks from the store because I try to avoid giving my kid extra sugar or food dies, and the “healthier” options are a bit pricey. I looked up how to do it on our own and it’s actually quite a simple process – not to mention my toddler LOVES to make and eat them. It does make a bit of a mess especially with kids, but it’s so easy to clean up too.

What Makes This Recipe So Great

• No Unnecessary Ingredients: These really only require juice and agar agar powder, but you can add a sweetener like maple syrup if you want or leave it out if you think it’s sweet enough on it’s own. The fruit snacks are naturally colored by whatever juice you use, it’s fun to make multiple batches even to have different colors – just make sure whatever juice you choose is just juice without added sugar or food dyes, and you’re good to go!
• Easy To Make: Just mix the ingredients in a pot, bring to a bowl, then let simmer for a couple minutes before putting it into the gummy molds.
• It’s Fun: Using the droppers to collect the juice mixture and squeeze it into the gummy molds is a ton of fun, and a great activity for a toddler’s fine motor skills. If you purchase fun molds like the dinosaur ones we found, it’s a huge hit!
• Delicious: They’re just little gummies of your favorite juice.

Ingredients

• Fruit Juice – Use any kind of juice! Try different kinds for a variety of flavors and colors!
• Agar Agar Powder – This is what will give your gummies their bouncy gelatinous texture. I’m sure there’s a way to make this with real gelatin, but I haven’t tried or looked into it.
• Maple Syrup – This adds a little extra sweetness, but it’s definitely not necessary. You can try other sweeteners like honey or sugar if you want.

Some Recipe Tips

The texture of these gummies is not like fruit snacks at all. If you’re wanting a more chewy texture, leave them at room temperature uncovered for a day or so and they’ll become more chewy like gummies – they will shrink in size significantly!

If your juice mixture overfills, you can either leave it, or if you want more uniform shapes, you can use a sharp knife to slice off the excess after it hardens but before you pop the fruit snacks out.