There have been a bunch of recipes for fruit snacks on Pinterest popping up in my news feed lately, and blueberries were on sale at Wegman’s, and we’re always looking for snack alternatives to our beloved hummus and Pretzel Chips. So….fruit snacks it is! As someone who likes to know what we’re consuming, and where it comes from, the fact that there were 4 ingredients in this, total, was really appealing. Organic blueberries, local organic honey, and lovely Meyer Lemons make up for the fact that these include gelatin. Let’s just think of the detoxifying benefits of the lemons cancelling that right out, though!
HOMEMADE FRUIT SNACKS (makes approx. 2.5 cups)
– 1.5 cups blueberries (or your choice of berry)
– 3/4 cup meyer lemon juice (approx. 4-5 meyer lemons) These are a cross between a clementine & a lemon (a friend of mine calls them “lemontines”), which makes the recipe sweeter, and better, than the sourness of traditional lemons
– 2 tbsp. honey
– 2 tbsp. gelatin
1. Wash the blueberries, juice the lemons, then combine in a saucepan over medium heat until the berries start to soften.
2. Remove from heat and let cool approx. 5 minutes.
3. Puree – ideally with an Immersion Blender – or in a blender. Strain to remove the blueberry skins. A lot of these will just come up with the immersion blender, so if that’s good enough for you it’s good enough for me (it was).
4. Add honey, stir to combine. Taste at this point – what it tastes like now is what it’ll taste like when it sets, so modify the recipe as needed. More honey, more juice, etc.
5. Whisk in gelatin a tiny bit at a time, until fully incorporated.
6. Pour mixture into an ungreased shallow glass dish, and refrigerate for approx. 45 minutes until set.
7. Cut them into whatever shapes you like, remove from the glass dish, dust with a tiny bit of cornstarch to prevent them from sticking together, and store in a tupperware container (in the fridge) to enjoy. These had kind of a jello jiggler texture, which we liked, but if you want them to be more of a traditional “fruit snack” texture, I’d add maybe 2 more tbsps. of gelatin.