Easy Fruit Juice Gelatin (No Sugar)
You’ll love this easy Apple Gelatin recipe! It’s an easy, sugar-free, recipe with just two simple ingredients and makes a perfect snack or dessert!
Homemade Fruit Juice Gelatin
We’ve been searching lately for easy and simple (and frugal!) toddler snacks. In our food allergy household, it can be difficult and expensive to find a decent snack that makes everyone happy!
–Learn more about How to Deal With Food Allergies On a Budget
Turns out in my snack making experiments, homemade gelatin is very easy to make and pretty cost-efficient. One box of Jello from the store costs around $0.75. One container of Great Lakes Gelatin (which is from grass-fed cows, don’t buy just any old gelatin!!) costs $15.
That is enough to make 64 batches of homemade gelatin! Of course, you will still have the extra cost of the fruit juice for this recipe but it still should come out to around the same amount for your homemade gelatin as it costs for the store-bought kind.
Plus you also have the security of knowing that there are only 2 ingredients in your homemade version instead of an average of 9 (only one of which I can pronounce) like there is in store-bought Jello.
Homemade Apple Gelatin Recipe
What You Need:
1 Tablespoon of Gelatin
2 cups of fruit juice (your choice)
How to make homemade gelatin:
I used an organic apple juice because that’s what I had on hand but you could use any flavor of juice for this recipe!
First, pour 1 cup of your juice into a saucepan and heat on low heat. You don’t need it to boil, you just want it to warm up.
Once it’s warm, whisk in one tablespoon of unflavored gelatin. Mix it well, making sure you get rid of any clumps that form. Remove your saucepan from the heat and add in the other cup of fruit juice. Stir well.
Pour this mixture into a refrigerator safe container. Place it in the fridge until it is firm.
Enjoy! As you can see, it’s toddler approved!
Print this Simple Apple Gelatin Recipe to add to your Recipe Binder below:
Homemade Apple Gelatin Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon of Gelatin
- 2 cups of fruit juice your choice
Instructions
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First, pour 1 cup of your juice into a saucepan and heat on low heat. You don't need it to boil, you just want it to warm up.
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Once it's warm, whisk in one tablespoon of unflavored gelatin. Mix it well, making sure you get rid of any clumps that form. Remove your saucepan from the heat and add in the other cup of fruit juice. Stir well.
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Pour this mixture into a refrigerator safe container. Place it in the fridge until it is firm.
If you want to get creative with this, try different kinds of juice or different combinations of juice. You could even try adding in some fruit pieces (just not pineapple, it won’t gel). Or try making it in a fun shaped mold!
This is a great snack because it’s full of protein and fruit. Your little one (or you!) won’t even know that it’s healthy and will just enjoy the treat!
Looking for more snack ideas? Here are a few to try next:
- Sweet Potato Toddler Snacks
- Crispy Peas Snack Recipe
- Healthy Fruit Snacks
- Real Food Road Trip Snacks: Banana Bites
- No Nut Oatmeal Bites Recipe for Kids (Plus Free Printable!)
- Homemade Vanilla Pudding Recipe
Want more fun recipes just like this one? Make sure to check out my book, Little House Living: The Make Your Own Guide to a Simple, Frugal, and Self Sufficient Life. It has over 130 original recipes for everything from beauty to food products and I know you will love it!
Have you made Homemade Gelatin before? What’s your favorite flavor combination?
This Apple Gelatin Recipe was originally published on Little House Living in January 2013. It has been updated as of January 2020.
I love the idea. It bothers me a little using the gelatin though. What exactly is in it? My little guy 14 months would love this though
Here’s more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin
Gelatin is actually super healthy for you, but you need to make sure you buy it from a reputable source.
This is AWESOME! Thank you for posting it! I am curious though, my kids love jello jigglers. Would I just double the amount of geletin, or do they come out fairly firm?
I would maybe add 50% more gelatin first before I’d try doubling it. It is fairly firm with the amount I used in the recipe but a little bit more should get it to the “jigglers” consistency.
Thank you SO much!! I have been looking for a healthy alternative for the husband and kids (I just can’t do jello…lol) and refused to buy the “junk” with all the fake stuff in it. My husband will be SO thrilled to have jello again and it will be a great “new” treat for the “youngin’s”. Thank you again!!
What about the gelatin that Azure standards sells? Its even cheaper. Have you tried it?
I have but I’m not as happy with it as the Great Lakes. It works just fine though if you want to try something cheaper first!
I just bought some from azure, so i will try it out. I’m curious what you didn’t like about it, and why you like great lakes better. Thanks.
It just didn’t dissolve as well as the Great Lakes brand and I’m not sure if it’s from grass fed cows.
This gelatin is porcine…not bovine.
Beth
That’s strange, I bought the bovine gelatin a few weeks ago and that was the right link but now it’s not coming up for me.
Here’s the correct link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ELLBJS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001ELLBJS&linkCode=as2&tag=lithouonthe05-20
Just went back to Amazon to investigate and they do have bovine gelatin. The link you provided does link to the porcine gelatin.
A quick tip from a pro kitchen….along with pineapple, kiwis and mangoes also have an enzyme that keeps gelatins and aspics from setting. You can try but….:) My personal favourite gelatin flavour is still cranberry 😉
Thank you for sharing!
Such an easy thing to do. I saw it done with wine once on The Food Network as well. That would be delicious too.
has anyone tried this recipe using xanthan gum instead of gelatin?
Merissa,
I haven’t had Jello in a really long time due to all of the junk in it. This post brought new light to the real stuff and inspired me to buy the suggested gelatin. Our whole family has enjoyed it, especially our 16 month old twins. Thank you!!!! I just put a pan of kombucha gelatin in the fridge. While making it I’d remembered reading somewhere about kombucha gummies. When I searched for one I couldn’t find a good recipe. Your gummy recipe/video looks pretty easy. I was wondering how much of this new gelatin would be used in place of the packages?
Thank you so much for all of your posts. I really enjoy your blog. 😉
Hmm good question. I think to make the gummies I would add either a tablespoon and a half to this recipe posted above or maybe 2 tablespoons. Try the lesser amount first and let us know!
I’d love to try this. However, I read quite a few reviews on Amazon that said the stuff was super stinky, making it inedible. That’s not going to go over well in my house. I trust you more than random Amazon reviews – so what do you think about the stink factor?
I’ve never had a stink issue with the Gelatin. Just make sure that it’s the BEEF gelatin, not the bovine. We use the beef and it has no scent at all.
I used the bovine gelatin and the taste was so strong, I found it to be inedible. The taste of the gelatin made me gag.
Was it old? We have the bovine gelatin and don’t seem to notice a taste or smell at all.
Hi Merissa,
What is the difference between bovine and porcine gelatine? And how is it good for you? I have no idea about this ingredient. I love this idea.
Thanks Mon
Porcine is made from pork (pigs) and bovine is made from beef (cows). Some claim there is some smell and taste associated with the porcine gelatin but I wouldn’t be able to tell you first hand since I’m allergic to pork so we haven’t tried that one! Other than that they are nutritionally the same.
Gelatin is a mixture of protein fragments extracted by hydrolysis (breaking down) of the protein collagen, generally obtained from pigs (porcine – type A) and cows (bovine – type B). They differ in the method of extraction – porcine gelatin utilizing acids while bovine gelatin using alkalis.
Might be interesting to try alternatives such as agar agar (extracted from algae) or pectin (can be extracted at home from unripe apples)