Homemade fruit snacks

When I was a kid, there were two fruity snacks that used to fight for space in my lunch bag.  Actually, I would've gladly taken them both to school for dessert, but my mother probably wouldn't have allowed that...so the battle ensued.  It was the fruit roll-up versus the now-extinct fun fruits.  Do you remember those?  They were these half jelly bean shaped fruit chews that came in a foil-lined pouch.  Not sure why either of them was allowed to be part of my childhood school lunches, but we loved them!

While I was searching Pinterest the other day - have you used Pinterest yet?  It's my newest form of procrastination/recipe searching - I came across a recipe for homemade fruit snacks.  They sounded fun and cute, so I put them onto my "Things I Want To Bake" board (even though they don't involve baking....I know, I need another board for non-baked treats) and thought to myself that eventually I'd get to making them, once I got a mold for them.

Well today was an exciting day for me.  And by exciting, I'm being totally sarcastic...I worked, ran errands, got a snack, came home, cleaned, did school work, had dinner, and ran more errands.  I ended up at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and was roaming the aisles picking up tons of random useless things that I didn't need (two samplers of new Keurig coffee flavors, pouring spoons for cupcakes, bathroom cleaner...ok, so I needed the bathroom cleaner), and came across little ice cube trays for "cubettes" and had an epiphany -- "these will be perfect for those fruit snacks!"  On my way home I bought a box of jello to make them.  The store was closing in 4 minutes and I grabbed a box....of new Mango Jello.

The "cubette" tray makes 90 mini ice cubes.  I got 62 mini fruit snacks from this recipe - not including some partially filled cavities of the tray.  When I made these again, I'd definitel double or triple the recipe in order to get enough fruit snacks.  Although they are easy enough to just make another batch, although cleaning the pot is the hardest part of the whole process.  That and removing the fruit snacks from the tray.  A toothpick seemed to aid in the process.

The amazing thing about these fruit snacks is that they're actually good!  I can't wait to try them in different flavors.  And the size of the fruit snacks that this tray makes is perfect for, well, snacking!

Homemade Jello Fruit Snacks

Ingredients:

1 3 oz box Jello, any flavor
2 x 0.25 oz boxes unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup water

Directions:

Sprinkle the gelatins over the water in a small saucepan.
Heat over medium heat and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.
Pour into molds and allow to set at least 20 minutes.

Voila!  Homemade fruit snacks!