This is a great activity to do with the kids (or with grandkids…) at Christmas–or any time of year. It’s easy, fun, and yum yum yum!
The first thing you need for this fun little food project are some Christmas clay cutters. You can get clay cutters at any major craft store. Michael’s usually has the Christmas ones in stock around the holidays, but this year I saw neither hyde nor hair of them, so I headed on over to the holiday section and found these delightful little mini-cookie cutters for 3 bucks. Not as cute and tiny, but still cute.
Wilton Holiday 18 pc Metal Cookie Cutter Set
You can also check cake decorating aisles. They usually have fondant cutters (which are essentially clay cutters) in all sizes and styles. Even doll-house paraphernalia (I spelled that word right the first time, btw) includes little doll-sized cookie cutters that I dare say are about the size and efficacy of a clay cutter.
Needless to say, you can easily find something to use for your tiny-shape cutting enjoyment.
If you are feeling ambitious, you can use candy molds and squirt the liquid into them one by one with a nozzled bottle or a frosting bag. Your options are endless here, folks. Get creative. I don’t have time or the patience for candy molds. So I’m using cutters and cranking them out Henry Ford style (hello–inventor of the assembly line?)
But first things first. I’m going to post the basic recipe here so you can refer to it through the variations on this post.
- ½ C. freshly squeezed orange juice
- ½ C. freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 C. diced fruit of choice
- 5 packets of unflavored gelatin
- 3 Tbsp sugar or choice of sweetener (to taste)
- Combine fruit and fruit juices into a small pot and bring to a boil.
- Turn heat down to medium high and sir occasionally until fruit becomes soft.
- Take off heat and pour into a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Let cool for 5 minutes and add gelatin and sugar. Blend until smooth.
- Pour into a rimmed baking sheet or container and let set for an hour in the fridge.
- Remove from fridge and cut out figures with clay cutters.
Step 1: The start for any flavor you choose is one cup of freshly squeezed citrus juice, 1/2 cup each of orange and lemon. If you must, you can buy high quality juice in a bottle or box, but fresh is better.
Don’t worry about pulp or seeds getting in the juice. They just get cooked up and blended anyway. More fiber!
Step 2: Next is your fruit of choice. I went with raspberry pomegranate. Not only do I love the combination of flavors and the bonus in nutritional value, but they are vibrant in color.
- I recommend doing the full 2 cups of raspberries and a 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds. They have so little juice, it does not affect the volume much, but it will affect the flavor.
You could also go with cherries if you want a red gummy, but strawberries end up turning pink, which is fine. But if you want red, you’ll need to add food coloring. Or you could try putting pomegranate seeds in the mix and let me know how it turns out!
Step 3: Bring juices and fruit to a boil and stir occasionally until fruit is soft.
Step 4: Blend up the fruit until smooth and let it cool for 5 minutes or so. Then add your sweetener (to taste) and your gelatin and blend until smooth.
Step 5: Pour into a rimmed baking dish or container and chill in the fridge for an hour.
Step 6: Cut out your gingerbread men. Or whatever Christmas shape you prefer.
Serve along with the green gummies for a festive look. And be sure to include the Naughty Coconut Bites you just made yesterday!
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Now for the green gummies. I used kiwi, but you could also use green apple. Each step is the same except this one I added a cup more of fruit and a couple drops of food coloring.
Step 1: Start with your citrus juices again.
Step 2: Then peel and dice 3 cups of kiwi.
- The basic recipe calls for 2 cups of fruit, but kiwi is fairly mild in taste and waters down in the pan, so I recommend doing 3 cups of diced kiwi.
- Make sure the kiwi is at least somewhat ripe or the fruit will be sour and tasteless.
- Fun fact: you CAN eat kiwi with the peel. It’s good for you (fiber) and kind of fun to eat (am I weird for thinking that?) But you should peel it for this recipe. Just cut off the knobby ends of the kiwi with a knife and grab a potato peeler for the rest. It should be fairly easy, especially if they are ripe.
Step 3: Toss it all in a pan to boil and soften just as you did for the raspberry/pomegranate flavor.
Step 4: Blend it up and cool for 5 minutes, then add sweetener (to taste) and gelatin.
- Without the food coloring it still looks good, but I wanted the green color to really pop, so I added a couple drops of green food coloring and blended it up.
Steps 5-6: Chill in the fridge for an hour, then cut out your gummies and enjoy!
Be sure to combine these with your favorite Naughty Coconut Bites for part of a complete holiday treat!
