Tired of turning to the chocolate chips to satisfy your sweet tooth? Bring out the Jell-O because, sometimes, chocolate just doesn’t do it. You need that gummy, sweet, chewy snack that brings you back to the simple days of trading your pudding for those fruit snacks between grades K-6. I found a simple, four-ingredient recipe for homemade fruit snacks to bring me back to the glory days. Then the sweet tooth struck and I thought, hey, aren’t sour patch kids basically just fruit snacks with sour sugar?

After looking up how to make the sugar, I embarked on my journey towards making homemade sour patch kids. Note: Since we are using gelatin, the snacks will be much chewier than normal sour patch kids and will have a different texture. The puree can be made by blending your favorite fruit together and is an excellent addition that I suggest always adding to Jell-O. Also, adding the sugar is the hardest part but the most fun. You can play around with the amount of juice and sugar until it’s to your liking.

Easy

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 24 hours
Total time: About 1 day

Ingredients:
2/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup fruit puree
3 packs gelatin
2-6 tablespoons honey (to taste)
Powered sugar
Lemon juice

Directions:

1. Make the gelatin according to the directions on the box.

2. Whisk the gelatin with the fruit puree, orange juice and honey on the stove, letting the mixture heat up, but only until it bubbles on the sides. Do not let it boil.

sour patch kids

Photo by Morgan Nagy

3. Pour mixture into a pan and refrigerate for about 24 hours.

sour patch kids

Photo by Morgan Nagy

4. Take the “Jell-O” out of the pan and cut it up into bite sized pieces.

5. Fully submerge the pieces in the lemon juice. Remove and sprinkle with the powdered sugar.

sour patch kids

Photo by Morgan Nagy

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