Healthy Homemade Fruit Snacks for Kids

You will love these healthy homemade fruit snacks for kids. These homemade fruit snacks are naturally sweetened and filled with probiotics. Easy and delicious, your children will ask for these again and again!

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Benefits of Homemade Healthy Fruit Snacks for Kids

Commercial fruit snacks can be full of unnecessary, yucky, ingredients that have no nutritional value. Loaded with gums, dyes, and high fructose corn syrup, we really steer clear from these packaged snacks.

My children love this delicious alternative to store bought fruit snacks. These healthy homemade fruit snacks for kids are made with organic cold-pressed juice, tart cherry juice concentrate, grass-fed beef gelatin, raw honey and probiotics. In other words they are packed with nutrition!

Cold-pressed juice over other juices

When looking at the ingredient labels I notice that many juices are made from concentrate. When juices are processed into a concentrate, this gives them a higher concentration of sugar. I like to opt for fresh cold-pressed juices for the base of our healthy homemade fruit snacks. This is a great way to add in fresh veggie juices or fruit juice like we will be using in this recipe.

Cold-pressed juice is pressed from the juice without using heat. This helps more the nutrients in the juice to remain and not be destroyed through the process of heating.

Benefits of tart cherry juice

Tart cherry juice is very rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants help contribute to the elimination of free radicals in the body.

Tart cherry juice also has the nutrients copper, manganese, magnesium, vitamin A, potassium and iron. Adding tart cherry juice to these healthy homemade fruit snacks for kids gives this snack a nice extra boost of nutrition.

Grass-fed beef gelatin

Gelatin helps give the firm jello consistency to these fruit snacks. Opting for grass-fed gelatin means that the gelatin has been sourced from cows who have been raised on pasture instead of processed GMO corn and soy products. Grass-fed beef gelatin gives these healthy homemade fruit snacks for kids a boost of quality protein.

Raw honey

Raw honey is a natural sweetener that contains amino acids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. We like to choose raw honey when we can. Like cold-pressed juice, raw honey has only been strained and not been processed with heat to destroy nutrients within the honey. The way foods are processed and packaged is important in maintaining a higher level of nutrition in the food.

Probiotics and gut health

Probiotics are super important for gut health which contributes to overall health. I like to include probiotics to our diet in a variety of ways.

Healthy homemade fruit snacks are a nourishing snack, packed with nutrients and healthy ingredients. Homemade fruit snacks are a simple snack you can feel good about stocking your pantry with. They are a hit in our home for sure. 

Homemade Healthy Fruit Snacks for Kids Recipe

Bear Gummy Mold

Ingredients for Healthy Homemade Fruit Snacks

8oz. organic cold-pressed juice. You can find these juices stored in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.

4oz. organic tart cherry juice concentrate

4 tablespoons unflavored grass-fed beef gelatin. You can find grass-fed beef gelatin at most health food stores. I like to buy ours in bulk from Azure Standard.* You can also use code: AmandaBrecto1 at azurestandard.com/start

3 tablespoons organic raw honey

1 probiotic capsule (or 1 serving of your favorite probiotic powder). You can talk to your healthcare professional about what strains of probiotics you should be supplementing with if you are unsure where to start with probiotics.

*This Azure link is a referral link to use at no extra cost to you. Just a way to share products we love and help support our family using a resource we use and have loved for years.

Instructions for Healthy Homemade Fruit Snacks

First, pour your cold-pressed juice into a glass bowl.

Then, sprinkle gelatin powder over the juice to set for 5 minutes. I notice the gelatin has set up when the top looks wavy as the juice has been absorbed and the surface begins to firm up.

Then, in a saucepan over the stove, heat the juice concentrate to just steaming (not simmering or boiling).

After the juice has reached the steaming point, remove the concentrate from heat. Pour the juice concentrate over the gelatin mixture. I stir the mixture until the gelatin has completely dissolved.

When the gelatin has dissolved and the mixture has cooled a bit, I mix in raw honey and probiotic capsule. If the mixture is too hot, the heat will kill the good probiotic cultures and possibly other nutrients that are heat sensitive. Stirring consistently will help the mixture to cool down enough in order to not damage the probiotics or other nutrients.

The next step is to pour the juice mixture into a parchment lined baking pan OR pipe into your favorite silicone mold. We really like to use gummy bear shapes but any shape will do. We have even just cut squares from the baking dish after refirigerating and my children love them just as well.

After distributing into the molds, refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Pop your healthy homemade fruit snacks out of the molds or cut into little cubes.

How long do healthy homemade fruit snacks for kids keep?

I keep homemade fruit snacks in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Other homemade healthy fruit snack variations:

Tropical Healthy Homemade Fruit Snacks

Veggie juices

I use a variety of veggie juices to these delicious fruit snacks occasionally. I find that carrot and beet juices are wonderful flavors to pair with a favorite fruit juice when making healthy homemade fruit snacks. If you have a picky eater or have a hard time with your children eating their veggies, making homemade healthy fruit snacks is a great snack to keep on hand for those extra vitamins.

Did you make this recipe? Remember to pin to save for later!

Let us know in the comments what your favorite healthy homemade fruit snack flavors are!

Thank you for being here! Until next time!

Amanda