Fruit Jelly Candies Pâtés de Fruits

When I reminisce about my childhood taste for junk foods, including those little cellophane packets of sugar-coated jellies, I wonder why I’m still alive. I still see those jellies near the counters in discount drugstores, and I suspect there’s not a drop of real fruit in them.

It wasn’t until I got a job translating a book on French desserts that I realized that fruit jellies were once made with real fruit, and in some special places still are. Homemade jellies don’t look as pretty as the electric green and red ones packaged in cellophane, but they have a bright, clean, authentic flavor. Fruit jellies are made by cooking fruit pulp with sugar until the mixture becomes so concentrated that it sets when cold. Pectin is added to help the candies set and to give them their characteristic melting consistency. Lemon juice is usually added to the fruit to give the mixture some acidity, to balance its sweetness, and to help activate the pectin. Professional chefs also add glucose, which helps prevent the sugar in the mixture from crystallizing. Instead of glucose, I use corn syrup—a mixture of glucose and fructose—because I can find it at the supermarket.