Simple to make sweet, fruit jubes using only a handful of ingredients.
I made these Black Cherry Jubes a couple of weeks back as a topper for my Loaded Rocky Road Cupcakes. I think I read a “traditional” rocky road recipe somewhere that suggested it should contain glace cherries but, not being a fan of glace cherries, I decided to look for another way to incorporate cherry. This is what I came up with.
Growing up, my brother and I would go shopping with mum on a Thursday night and each week, shewould give us $2 to get whatever lollies we wanted. I always headed straight for super sweet, sugary candy. I was never a chocolate girl (bet you wouldn’t have believed that looking around this site, wouldya?) J No, no. My preference was something sweet and sugary, probably musk or berry flavoured or sherbert of some kind (like the sherbert fountains you used to get with the stick of licorice in them. I so have to make them now. Ha.
Easy candy
So I’ve never really forayed into the world of candy making but I’ve still (obviously) have a sweet tooth. Things like taffy and boiled lollies always looked like waaaaaay too much effort. But jubes, hmmm, not so much actually 🙂
Jubes have so many different names, so I wasn’t sure what to call them but I grew up with them being called jubes or even soft jellies or jelly jubes. Firm, but chewy jelly, coated in sugar that stay firm at room temp and you can hold in your hand.
Other recipes you’ll love
– Raspberry Rocky Road
– Homemade Almond Roca
– Strawberry White Chocolate Truffles
– Peppermint Butterscotch Candy
Holy cow! These things are eeeeeeeaasy!!!
You literally puree a tin of (insert-fruit-here) and mix it with some sugar and gelatine and pour it into a tin. This then firms up into a slab of sticky jelly that you coat in caster or superfine sugar and cut into desired shapes. You can even use chocolate moulds to make different shapes.
Sugar Spaghetti anyone?
I ended up making teeny, tiny cherry jubes to put on top of the rocky road cupcakes, then larger ones to eat as is. I even experimented cutting long strips into spaghetti jelly. This was a lot of fun.
What I really love is, yes there’s sugar but there is also a full tin of fruit in these. Real, unadulterated fruit. No flavours, no colours, no preservatives. To be honest even with a full tin of fruit, the cherry flavour wasn’t overly strong but they were still very yummy. They disappeared pretty quick at work so I figure there’s quite a few sweet tooths out there.
Other recipes you’ll love
– Raspberry Rocky Road
– Homemade Almond Roca
– Strawberry White Chocolate Truffles
– Peppermint Butterscotch Candy
Black Cherry Jubes
Ingredients
- 400 g tinned black cherries in juice (note 2)
- 3 cups (600g) white sugar
- 3 tablespoons powdered gelatin (note 1)
- cooking spray or oil, for greasing
- 1/4 cup caster / superfine / sanding sugar, for coating jubes
Instructions
- Use a blender to puree the tinned cherries, then strain the puree to make sure you have a nice smooth liquid. Place about half of the puree into a small heavy based saucepan with the sugar. Heat gently and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Now bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to boil rapidly for 5 minutes. Use a pastry brush dipped in water to dissolve any sugar crystals that stick to the inside of the saucepan above the syrup.
- Meanwhile, place the remaining puree in a small bowl and mix in the powdered gelatine. This will thicken quickly into a solid mass.
- When syrup has boiled for 5 minutes, remove from heat and add gelatin mix. Stir it continuously until it has totally dissolved.
- Lightly grease an 8x8 inch or similar (it doesn’t have to be exact) with oil spray. I used a slightly larger tray that made the jubes in the pictures thinner. Pour the mixture into the greased tray and refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Once set, the mixture will be springy and stretchy and should pull away from the edge of the tin cleanly.
- Sprinkle a large chopping board or a larger baking tray generously with caster / superfine / sanding sugar and carefully turn the mixture out onto the sugared surface. Sprinkle more sugar all over the top and rub in so that the whole thing is coated. Now chop it into squares or strings using a lightly greased knife and coat each in more of the sugar. Allow them to air dry for a few hours or overnight.
Notes
- I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (4 teaspoons)
- You could try experimenting with other types of fruit too
…and I’m the recipe developer, cook, photographer, and author behind Sugar Salt Magic. I’m also mum to 3 amazing fur babies and wife to the most amazing man in the world. Life is good. I love food and creating easy (mainly sweet) recipes that I can share with you. I’d love you to join along in my journey so sit back, relax and have a look around for some yum that you can feed your friends and family with. 
This recipe is so nostalgic, reminds me of those gummy candies I used to eat as a kid!
I love to hear that, Trang. Some of my favourite things to make (and eat) are the ones that remind me of my childhood 🙂
Made this recipe today but used peaches instead of cherries and put some bhut jolokia chillies in there too. have come out yum as!!!
Fantastic. What a creative flavour combo. I bet they were amazing
Do you think instead of fruit you could use raw liquorice as well as some chilli to give a gummy liquorice with some heat?
I’m sorry to say I have no experience with raw liquorice so I couldn’t confidently say. In theory though I can’t see why it wouldn’t work
Do you think this would work with Stevia instead of sugar?
Hello Rita, I haven’t tested this and don’t have much experience with stevia. If it reacts like sugar and will turn the cherries syrupy, then yes, it should work. If you try it, please let me know.