Tree Hugging Family - Living Green

Homemade Organic Fruit Snacks

by Jennifer on February 23rd, 2008

It’s another all-kid Saturday! Today, I thought we’d focus on cooking. There are plenty of fun, green, and healthy ways that kids can get involved with food. First up today - homemade fruit snacks.

These snacks have many advantages over boxed fruit snacks.

Healthier - while this is more a fun food, than a “meal” food, they still have less sugar than store bought fruit snacks and have no weird chemicals, colors, or preservatives.

Less packaging - the fruit snacks in stores come in little bags that come in little boxes. It’s a ton of packaging.

Better taste - hands down, these treats are more flavorful than store bought.

You need to gather:

• Dried fruit. Assorted. I get mine from the local co-op. Try to find unsweetened, organic, bulk dried fruit. We’ve used pineapple, cherries, papaya, apricots and more. We don’t use crunchy dried, like bananas though. I’m not sure that would work. Grab a pound or so. If you have a dryer, you can use that to make your own dried fruit instead.

• Organic orange juice. You can use real fresh squeezed which offers great flavor, and you only need a little, so it’s not too much trouble. Kids like to squeeze oranges anyway. Cedar, my son, is allergic to oranges but can have mandarin oranges and lemons so we make ours with those instead of orange juice. It works fine. It’s a tad more tart.

• Orange rind (or lemon, mandarin, etc.). You need a good amount - maybe all of the rind from a medium sized fruit.

• Nuts - optional. If you use them you can use any kind, they just need to be finely chopped or ground up.

To make fruit snacks:

1. Grind up all the fruit - we use a blender on chop, then grind. A food processor might work better if you have one. I just don’t want an extra appliance around.
2. Add the orange rind - grind more.
3. Add enough juice to form a sticky mass - one that’s held together. Don’t add too much or it will be too watery a consistency.
4. Everyone grab a mound of sticky mass and roll some little balls out. Alternatively, we’ve rolled ours out with a slightly juiced rolling pin, then cut into squares. Make them about bite sized.
5. If you’re using nuts, roll the balls/squares in the nuts.
6. Eat!

It’s sticky cooking - but still a good time.

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POSTED IN: Cooking, Baking, & Treats, Fun, Organic Food & Drink, Youth Activity