MAHA - Homemade Fruit Leather and Gummies

In another episode of MAHA, we are going to make fruit leather and gummies.
You don't have to have a dehydrator. The fruit leather can be done in the oven at a low temperature.
You don't even need cute molds for the gummies. You can just pour the mixture into a shallow dish and cut them up.

The gelatin you use makes a huge difference!  You should look for grass-fed beef gelatin.  Gelatin provides so many benefits for our bodies.  It's good for bones and joints, teeth and nails.  

Be sure to use organic fruit if you can and real honey and these treats will be good for you and your children to eat.  Plus, your children will LOVE making them!

Homemade Fruit Leather
thanks to Seed and Sparrow Homestead
3 cups fruit puree
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup honey (you decide how sweet you want them)
vanilla (optional)

Blend together and pour onto a parchment-lined sheet pan as thinly as you can (no more than ¼ inch thick).
Put in the oven at the lowest temperature possible (no more than 200) and leave for 6-8 hours. NOTE: My oven will not go lower than 170 and I cooked the first batch way way too long. They were brittle. So, watch them closely.
I found the better and less stressful way to do this was use my dehydrator. I put them in on very low heat and air overnight and took them out when they, well, felt like leather :)
When the leather is completely set and not sticky, cut the parchment paper in strips using scissors and roll up. Store the roll-ups in an air-tight jar for up to a week.

Fruit Gummies

As I said in class yesterday, the formula for gummies is....

1 cup juice or fruit puree

3 tablespoons gelatin

You can add lemon juice if more tartness is desired, or honey if the fruit is very tart.

Put juice in a wide pot. Sprinkle gelatin over it and stir or you can use an immersion blender.
Add the honey and the lemon juice if using.

Put the pot on low heat and stir until the mixture becomes liquid. DO NOT BOIL.  (Note:  there was a lot of foam on the batch I made.  Although it won't affect the taste of the gummy, it does affect the look of them and since kids are so picky....you can skim the foam off with a spoon if you want.)
Using a syringe, fill the molds and refrigerate.
Unmold and store in refrigerator in air-tight container.

Note – The recipe online says to be careful of fruits with high acidity – oranges, lemons, pineapple, kiwi, and mango. The high acidity affects the setting of the gelatin.
If you want to make these flavors, you will need to blend your fruit and put it in the saucepan and heat to 176 degrees for 8 minutes to deactivate the enzyme in the fruit and help it to set.
Then allow the temperature to drop and add the honey and gelatin mixture.  HOWEVER, I used orange juice and it didn't affect the gel at all, so test before you make a big batch.