[greenmum (OP)]

Hi.
Can anyone help me?!
I'm a mum of two young children, living in the UK, and I want to make lollies at home with real fruit that taste like shop bought lollies, but without all the added rubbish. Whenever I've made them in the past they have a lot of ice crystals. Also, I want to be able to store them in the freezer for some time. I know that to do this you need a stabiliser / gelling agent and thickener. I've done some research and from what I can see the least harmful of these appears to be carob bean gum, tara gum and citric acid.
Do I need all of these ingredients and if so, how do I know how much to use? Are these are available in small quantities?
Please help if you can, as I feel I need a chemistry degree to go any further! Or perhaps you could point me in the direction of anyone that could help.
Many thanks
Helen

[Gaia]

Hi Helen

The easiest was to make the lollies would be to use fruit juice and freeze it in lolly moulds. You don't need to add anything, they will store fine. My mum used to do this when we were little'uns.

Gaia  xxx

[Karen W.]

I agree, And you can make the blackberry ones by smooshing the berries through a seive, and removing the seeds, they make Gloious popsickles, or lollies.You just refrezze your berry pulp.. you can add a tad of sugar, depending on the ripeness of your berries. Peaches are great done the same way.

Karen

[Karen W.]

Thank you George!

Karen

[Karen W.]

The berry ones are my favorite, It seemed like I have seen some people put pectin in them, but I usually don't put anythinng in them at all.

Karen

[jolly]

just an idea but if you want to make lollies using real fruit as a healthier option could you not use cream to give it bulk, I'm sure that would'nt give you ice cristals! the cream would also give you the sugar content needed... You would just need experiment with different proportions of cream to fruit pulp until you find the best mixture!
Hows that?

[Karen W.]

That is a very good suggestion! Might be tasty also! Wow Jolly I forgot about this thread! LOL