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.

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.

Enjoy xx

5 from 2 votes

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Black Cherry Jubes

Simple to make sweet, fruit jubes using only a handful of ingredients.

You could try using different tinned fruits to make these too.

Course Afternoon Tea, Dessert, Snack, Sweets

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Author Marie

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

1. 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.
2. Meanwhile, place the remaining puree in a small bowl and mix in the powdered gelatine. This will thicken quickly into a solid mass.
3. When syrup has boiled for 5 minutes, remove from heat and add gelatin mix. Stir it continuously until it has totally dissolved.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Recipe Notes

1. I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (4 teaspoons)
2. You could try experimenting with other types of fruit too

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