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Healthy Gummy Treats

Healthy Gummy Treats

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Recently, I shared our nifty new idea of serving lunch in a muffin tin.  Did you notice the pink, heart-shaped gummy treats in those pictures?  They’re a new favorite around here.

My boys love them because they’re yummy and fun to eat.  I love them because they’re super healthy! They’re also perfect for our This-n-That lunches, and for packing in our favorite LunchBots containers.

Make your own Healthy Gummy Treats

I searched through quite a few fruit snack/gummy treat recipes to find the ones that seemed best for my purposes.  We’re still experimenting, but the recipes below are my favorites.

Update (Nov. 2015): Check out our new favorite gummy recipe with only three ingredients, including real fruit!  Homemade Gummy Treats with Real Fruit.

You will need:

1.  Fruit and/or liquid

  • real fruit (pureed)
  • fruit juice
  • kombucha
  • kefir water
  • any combination of the above

Great Lakes Gelatin
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2.  Gelatin

Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post about gelatin, a key ingredient in Healthy Gummy Treats.  [Here it is: What’s So Great About Gelatin?]

  • The more gelatin, the gummier the results.
  • Less gelatin results in more of a jello jiggler consistency.

Tip: Before you begin combining ingredients, measure all of your gelatin into a small bowl, preferably with a spout.  Take it from me–this makes it easier to add the gelatin gradually without losing count of how many tablespoons you’ve already added.

3.  Sweetener

  • Honey (raw & local is best)
  • Liquid stevia
  • or a combination

Gummy Flowers
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4.  Molds

  • Choose less detailed molds, with few nooks and crannies.  It will be easier to remove the gummies once they harden, especially for recipes which call for less gelatin.  Silicone works best, allowing you to pop out the gummies more easily than from a rigid mold.
  • Have your molds ready.  You’ll need to pour the mixture into the molds immediately, before it gels.
  • Use a butter knife, or something similar, to coax each gummy from the mold.
  • You don’t even need a mold!  Just use a glass dish, and once the gummy mixture hardens in the fridge, cut it into squares.  Or use cookie cutters.

Strawberry Lemonade Gummy Flowers
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Recipe #1: Strawberry Lemonade Gummies {Hollywood Homestead}

Hearts, bears and small flowers pictured above.

This recipe calls for a LOT of gelatin.  As a result, these gummies are much firmer and more like an actual gummy candy.  This makes them much easier to pop out of the molds, by the way.  And obviously, it means we’re consuming much more gelatin per gummy treat.

What I love about this recipe is the real fruit.  No juice required!  (Except for a small amount of lemon juice.)  So far I’ve tried only fresh strawberries, but am looking forward to experimenting with other fruits, including frozen.

I used my Vitamix to blend the ingredients–it worked really well, but started to gel very quickly and I had to rush to get the mixture distributed into all of the molds.

Recipe #2: Gummy Bears {Elana’s Pantry}

Flower trio and pirate gummies pictured above.

This recipe calls for much less gelatin, which produces floppier gummies reminiscent of jello jigglers.  We don’t drink juice, so I have to plan ahead a bit more with this recipe.  Because of the juice, plus less gelatin, I feel like these gummies are less nutritious as compared with the Strawberry Lemonade Gummies above.  They’re really fun to eat, though, and it’s nice to have some variety.  Plus, they’re super yummy.

This is the juice I use.

I struggled with lumps in this recipe until I learned an important tip: The Secret to Lump-Free Gummy Treats.

Recipe #3 Homemade Fruit Snacks {Wellness Mama}

This is the recipe I haven’t actually tried yet, but plan to soon.  It combines pureed fruit with fruit juice or kombucha.

Have you made your own gummy treats?  I’d love to hear your favorite recipe!

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Kathleen | Roots & Boots

Let's get real! I’m Kathleen Henderson, your Natural Living Mentor. I’m on a mission to help families see the joy in real food, while finding natural remedies and creating a nontoxic home. Learn more about my story >>

5 Comments

  1. Diana on 08/25/2014 at 1:43 pm

    Here’s an idea that made my head spin but tasted it for myself at our friend’s farm: SCOBY gummies! Her kids eat it so fast she’s not able to package and sell it as intended and it’s quite good. My 16 yr old son tried it and liked it but had to keep telling himself, “It’s just like the gummy bears, it’s just like the gummy bears.” (translation: “I can’t believe she got me to chew a SCOBY–yuck”) I might be able to find her recipe, but it involves sugar, drying and cutting. That’s about it! Loving your experimentation and success!

    • Kathleen on 08/25/2014 at 2:56 pm

      Wow, Diana. That’s hard core! 🙂 If I ever try my hand at kombucha, I will keep this in mind…

  2. Heather on 08/26/2014 at 3:06 am

    I have kombucha scoby coming out my ears, but I don’t think I could EVER pawn it off as gummy snacks. I agree that’s hard core!

  3. Kathy on 03/29/2016 at 3:35 pm

    A friend suggested I make gummies with the frozen blueberries I still have from last summer but I don’t want to use sweetener
    . She suggested bone broth and gelatin so they’d be more savory than sweet. SCOBY, hmm…. I’ve nibbled on it just to see what it tastes like but not sure I could eat it as a snack. Although, it would put those extra SCOBY’s to good use!

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