Healthy Homemade Strawberry Jelly/Gummy Candies- Refined Sugar Free, Gluten Free

On Friday, I had the exciting enjoyment of emptying out my freezer, because it wasn't working and things were starting to defrost- fortunately only just a drop defrosted, and not an entire freezer full like happened the last time. I'd left the freezer open a drop (something blocked the door) and some stuff defrosted enough to spill onto the fan and then refroze, making the fan unable to move, and the freezer and fridge were starting to not work. Fortunately, we fixed it ourselves quickly and easily enough, but I found some strawberries that I'd bought on sale when they were in season and froze, which had defrosted with these freezer issues...
So I said instead of re-freezing those strawberries, I'd make them into a dessert.
I'd been reading about making homemade healthy sour gummy candies (similar to the homemade mango gummy worms I'd made before) and I was trying to figure out what flavor to make them, and then I decided to take the defrosted strawberried I had, puree them, and turn them into strawberry sour gummy candies. Only they didn't come out so sour, so next time I'd probably increase the lemon juice (and reduce the water) in this.
And though they were gummy, they were slightly closer to the texture of jelly candy than gummy candies; I would have liked them to be even chewier, so next time I make this, I'll probably use 7 or 8 tablespoons of gelatin instead of 6.
While I made these with strawberry puree, I'm sure it would also be terrific with other pureed fruit, like raspberry puree, mango puree, applesauce, peach puree, etc...
My kids really enjoyed these gummy candies. But the best thing I did with them was coat them with homemade chocolate, to make chocolate covered strawberry jellies, very similar to chocolate covered jelly rings... But I'll get to that in another post...

Healthy Homemade Strawberry Gummy/Jelly Candies- Refined Sugar Free, Gluten Free

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons unflavored gelatin (I use fish gelatin but feel free to use beef)
1/2 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup boiling water
1/3 cup raw honey (or other sweetener)
1 1/4 cup pureed strawberries (or other fruit puree)

Instructions:
1. Mix your lemon juice with your gelatin, and let it sit together for 30 minutes to soften.

2. Add boiling water to the softened gelatin, and mix very well, until the gelatin is fully dissolved.

3. Add the raw honey, and mix it well until it is fully dissolved.

4. Add the pureed strawberries and mix so it is all uniform.

5. Pour the mixture into a mold. I used two silicon baking pans to make this- you want thin layers, so use as many molds as you need so that the gelatin isn't too deep in the mold.

6. Refrigerate until fully solid- this can be a few hours, or even shorter.

7. Remove from the molds and cut up with scissors into bite sized pieces.

8. Store in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Ever made homemade gummy candies/jelly candies? What was in them? Does this look like a recipe you or your kids would enjoy?

Linking up to WFMW, Real Food Wednesday, Allergy Free Wednesday