Kirbie's Cravings

Homemade Fruit Snacks

Homemade fruit snacks are so easy to make! It only takes about ten minutes to make the syrup, then you pour it into molds, let it set, and pop them out and they are ready to eat.

Homemade fruit snacks in a white bowl

I made my own fruit snacks/ gummy candies recently and they were so ridiculously easy to make. I’m so excited at how well they turned out and I already have about five billion variations I want to try after my initial successful stint.

It only takes about ten minutes to make the syrup, then you pour it into molds, let it set, and pop them out and they are ready to eat.
Homemade fruit snacks/gummy candy
For my initial try, I followed the recipe I found pretty closely. I only had two packs of unflavored gelatin remaining so I didn’t want to take any chances with experimenting. I used a combination of unflavored gelatin and Cherry flavored Jello mix. I’m not crazy about the artificial taste from the Jello mix so next time I’m going to substitute for fruit juice.

When I first bit in, my initial thought was that this was just Jello but with a harder texture. But once you start chewing, it tastes just like a gummy candy or fruit snack! I love that you can make these healthier by using real fruit juice.
Homemade fruit snacks on a cutting board
I bought these heart silicone molds on Amazon* especially to make these. They worked really really well. The silicone is very flexible and all the hearts popped out in one piece, even the little indent that is part of the heart pattern.
close-up photo of Homemade fruit snacks
As someone who eats and buys fruit snacks and gummy candies obsessively, I’m ridiculously happy to find out how easy it is to make my own and be able to have control over how much sugar and artificial ingredients go into my own homemade version. Now to buy some more cute silicon molds…

You might like my Homemade Fruit Leather, too!

*Some of the links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).

Homemade Fruit Snacks

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Course: Snacks
Cuisine: American
Homemade fruit snacks are so easy to make! It only takes about ten minutes to make the syrup, then you pour it into molds, let it set, and pop them out and they are ready to eat.

Ingredients

  • 1 (3 oz) package Jello mix any flavor
  • 2 (.25 oz) envelopes unflavored gelatin
  • 1/3 cup water

Instructions

  • Sprinkle the unflavored gelatin over the water in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, add in jello mix and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. Pour into molds and allow to set for about half an hour. Or put in fridge to set faster.

Notes

I bought these heart silicone molds on Amazon*
Recipe source: Six Sisters' Stuff and Mommy Savers
*Some of the links contained in this post are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred (at no extra charge to you).

The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.

Did you make this recipe?I'd love to see it! Mention @KirbieCravings and tag #kirbiecravings!

 

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Recipe Rating




45 comments on “Homemade Fruit Snacks”

  1. Instead of the Jello mix, you can try making a puree of strawberries with water, add gelatin and honey and whisk and add these to the mould. Healthy and tasty and wont even take up much time in the kitchen.

  2. I am SO excited to have come upon your site and these “jellies”!! Only problem is, I don’t have a silicone mold. But I was wondering if these could be made on a cookie sheet pan, lined with parchment, and cut with a pizza cutter? Or do you have a better suggestion?

    Thanks so much!

    • You can definitely give that a try, but cutting might be a little extra work. I’ve heard of people do that successfully though

  3. I made these in little lego man shapes for my son’s birthday. So much fun!!

  4. Hi! Looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it, just one question, when you say 2 packages of gelatin (.25) do you mean two packages each .25 or together they are .25? Could you convert it into tablespoons? Anyway, thanks for this wonderful gummy candy recipe. I’ve been looking for one like this for SO long! 🙂

    • I mean the packages that are .25, and use two of them. Sorry I don’t know the conversion to tablespoon. Try google search. I’ve been able to find a ton of conversions when I do that because someone usually posts it on a cooking website

  5. Hey! 🙂 When you say frozen juice concentrate, do you mean you scoop it right out of the can or do you prepare the juice then use it? Thank you so much for posting this! i had no idea how easy this could be! 🙂

  6. Ok. We made the ones using the fruit concentrate recipe. We did:
    1/3 cup Raspberry Lemonade concentrate
    2 (.25 oz) envelopes unflavored gelatin
    1/3 cup water

    The kids liked them better. They were a little less tough and chewy than the original recipe and the flavor was better. Both recipes were a success, but I think the juice concentrate recipe went over better. Thank you again!

  7. This is genius! Thank you so much for posting this! I am mom of 3 (18,6&4) and nanny of 3 (6,5&2) and all 6 kids loved them. Mine were little flowers instead of your cute hearts, but the silicone molds worked perfectly for this! I was wondering if you know how well they hold up in school lunches. With school starting next week I would much rather pack them these than store bought ones. Thanks again.

    • I haven’t tried them in school lunches but I did make them for a bridal shower before and they can keep for about 2-3 days in a container.

  8. Hello! I used this same recipe as the one you have, just from another blog. I wanted to chime in on your reader’s question about using a pan. If they were to use a smaller pan like a loaf pan, if they line it with parchment paper so they can grab it when it’s set, it will unstick from the pan. Also, if you find your snacks too sticky in the container, dust your fingers with cornstarch when handling them to prevent them from sticking.

  9. Aww I came here from pinterest and was hoping for a recipe for actual FRUIT snacks, not one with artificial flavors and colors. I’ll just have to keep looking!
    The little heart shapes are really cute, thought.

  10. I was wondering I don’t have any molds can I poor on cookie sheet and just cut into squares

    • The batter is liquid so I’m not sure how well it will work on a cookie sheet. Also I don’t think there is enough batter for an entire cookie sheet. You could try using a small loaf pan or something similar. It might also be hard to cut into squares because it’s quite sticky like gummy candies. One of the nice things about silicone molds is that you can pop them out.

  11. For the juice sub do you simply replace the water with equal part juice? and how did you adjust it to not use jello?

    • I found the best result is 2 packs of unflavored gelatin and 1/3 cup concentrated fruit juice (like the frozen ones you can buy). Then you leave out the jello and leave out the water.

  12. Hi do you have to us gelitin or is there a substitute because I am vegetarian

    • Unfortunately, yes you need to use gelatin. I’m sure there may exist recipes out there for vegetarians, but I have not successfully made one yet so I don’t have an alternate recipe to point you to.

  13. hey! i tried making them last night and they were great. i am from Greece and i dont really know what consistency they are supposed to have. so can you please describe it? are they supposed to be like jello or like haribo gummy bears? and could you please tell me the conversion of the ingredients in gramms? thank you! i can not wait to try them with different flavours and fresh fruit juice! great blog also! 😀 thanx for posting this recipe!

  14. Tried this out last night and they came out great. I made two batches, one with regular jello and one with sugar free jello. My younger brother is diabetic, so he doesn’t get to have fruit snacks or gummies all that often so I figured I would give the sugar free a try and maybe he could have them on a little more regular basis because they didn’t have any sugar in them. I was surprised at how well the sugar free came out. I did find that the sugar free didn’t make as many as the regular ones did and that they were a little more chewy than the others as well but all in all it was a wonderful find. Oh, and for anyone considering trying the sugar free they have a very similar taste to the sugar free jello, so if you like sugar free jello then you should like it in this recipe too. Thank you so much Kirbie for posting this. My brother sends his thanks as well, he absolutely loved them.

    • That’s so great to hear! And thanks for letting us know how the sugar free jello works. I was curious. I have some sugar free jello in the house but I didn’t have a chance to use it yet.

  15. Would it work if you made it with sugar-free jello? This sounds too easy and I would love to have my own gummy candy!

  16. These are so darling! I have that same candy mold–think I need to dust it off and make cute jellies now!

  17. This is amazingly cute. I have to get one of those molds!

    • I really love the heart molds! I like how they aren’t flat hearts, but instead the surface section is round and shiny. Most of the other ones I’ve seen are just flat. I’m going to try making some chocolates with them too.

  18. Those are SO ADORABLE! 🙂 Love the simplicity of the recipe, too. Thanks for sharing!

  19. This looks so awesome! Out of curiosity, have you come across any good gummy recipes using fruit pectin? I haven’t been able to eat gummies since becoming vegetarian and would love to make my own!

    • I have not find any with fruit pectin but I’ve seen some with agar agar powder. I tried one this weekend but I didn’t like how it came out. I’m going to try it again though, but I need to buy more agar powder since I used up my supply on my failed attempt.

  20. Amazing!! I’m also curious about using juice instead! Juice and tea sounds so good!

    • I’m excited to try juice and tea together. I have been eating a lot of this Bissinger gummy bears recently. They use natural fruit juice in their gummies and infuse them with teas, so there are flavors like white tea with pomegranate, etc. They taste really good, so I’m hoping to do the same!

  21. Our household likes fruit snacks, gummies AND jello, so I can’t wait to try this tonight. I also would expect this to taste like jello, but stiffer. I buy the unflavored gelatin in large quantities and have some silicone molds that would be perfect (those heart ones are so cute!).

    • They are super chewy, like gummy bears. I really liked them though. Definitely try them out. I’m excited to experiment with different fruit juices.

  22. Very cute and so simple! Please update the recipe when you figure out how much fruit juice to substitute for the Jello.

    • I will! One recipe suggests 1/3 cup of frozen concentrate fruit juice and then increasing the unflavored gelatin packs to 3. I want to also play around with doing a tea and fruit combo.

  23. That’s it? Who knew? They’re so cute too:)

    • I know! I can’t believe how simple it is. I might never buy fruit snacks or gummies again and just make my own creations. So much healthier too if I don’t use the jello packs.