Melissa K. Norris
  • Start Here
  • Podcast
  • Articles
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Classes
    • General Store
  • In Person Workshops
  • Academy
Log In

Historical Recipe: Dried Fruit and Nut “Candy”

Dessert, Healthy Snacks, Recipes, Vintage

Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase. Regardless, I only link to products we use on our homestead or believe in.
Jump to RecipePrint Recipe
Want a healthy "candy" for your family? This awesome dried fruit and nut candy is from her great-grandma's recipe collection and is no -cook and no bake. No sugar!

Are you looking for healthy treats for you and your kids?  We are not the only generation to worry about the amount of sugar consumed by our young children.  As I have been sorting through my great-grandmother's recipes, I discovered a newspaper clipping dated 1952, where the Red Cross suggests substituting “Fruit Candies” in the place of “rich confections” which might make children ill.  The article continues with several recipes for making these delicious fruit candies at home, even perhaps enlisting the help of the children themselves!

The recipes that follow combine dried fruit, nuts, and citrus to make tasty little treats.  If you have ever made homemade Larabars, the recipes are incredibly similar!

Resources for Homemade Historical Fruit Candies

Food Processor- Although the 1950s Mom may have “chopped everything finely” as the original recipe suggests, I use my food processor to speed things up.

Shredded Coconut– This was the best deal I found (and I kind of forgot to pick any up when I did our twice a month grocery run) on coconut, plus it's from one of my favorite brand's.

Dried fruit-Dehydrating fruit is easy and often times cheaper than purchasing it. Here's my tutorial on How to Dehydrate Fruit, plus an easy tip that's saved me hours of drying time. I will often times swap out blueberries and cherries for raisins or other dried fruits to give a different flavor or to avoid purchasing an ingredient.

Want a healthy "candy" for your family? This awesome dried fruit and nut candy is from her great-grandma's recipe collection and is no -cook and no bake. No sugar!

Kitchen scale-This kitchen scale is less than $15 and I use it for making homemade lotion bars, creams, and food of course. Seriously, a must have in a from scratch homemade kitchen.

Historical Fruit Candy Recipe

On top of being a sweet snack, we have these at my house as part of a quick breakfast on the go, and they make excellent trail food for family hikes.

Apricot Candy

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until finely chopped and mixture sticks together.  Roll into balls or shape into squares.

Fruit Caramels

This recipe is measured in pounds.  If you have a kitchen scale, it's easy to put the bowl of your food processor on it and then add ingredients to the right weight.  If you don't have a kitchen scale, try about ½ cup of each weighed ingredient.

Put all ingredients into a food processor and process until finely chopped and the mixture sticks together.  If you find the mixture is dry, squeeze in orange juice until it starts to stick together.  Press into a loaf pan and cut into squares.  Or form into squares or balls by hand.

A note about nuts:  The original recipe simply states “nuts” and leaves the choices up to you.  I usually use a combination of almonds and pecans, or almonds and cashews.  You could use one type of nut, or many.  I have even used sunflower seeds in place of nuts.

Variations 

  • Try adding spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, or ginger.
  • Add a little vanilla instead of some of the lemon juice or orange juice.
  • The original recipe suggested rolling the finished treats in sugar, but rolling in coconut would be nice too.
  • Changing up the types of nuts, or even the dried fruits, will create completely new varietiesWant a healthy "candy" for your family? This awesome dried fruit and nut candy is from her great-grandma's recipe collection and is no -cook and no bake. No sugar!

The original recipes (which have been slightly modified here) were published in “The Star Weekly” in February 1952.

Don't miss out on the rest of Andrea's Great-Grandmother's treats, visit Frugal Tips from 1913, Historical Honey Date Squares, and fan-favorite Vintage Carrot Cookies. 

Dried Fruit Candy

Andrea Sabean
No ratings yet
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course Snack
Cuisine America
Calories 1004 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • ¾ cup dried apricots
  • ½ cup nuts almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews, etc. see note below
  • ¾ cup shredded coconut
  • 1 tsp grated orange rind
  • 1 tsp grated lemon rind
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice

Instructions
 

  • Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until finely chopped and mixture sticks together.  Roll into balls or shape into squares.

Nutrition

Serving: 10gCalories: 1004kcalCarbohydrates: 113gProtein: 18gFat: 62gSaturated Fat: 26gSodium: 195mgPotassium: 1790mgFiber: 17gSugar: 82gVitamin A: 3514IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 114mgIron: 7mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Fruit Caramels

Andrea Sabean
4 from 2 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course fruit
Cuisine America
Servings 10
Calories 68 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 pound pitted dates
  • 1/4 pound dried figs
  • 1/4 pound pound raisins
  • 1/4 pound coconut
  • 1/4 pound pound nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews, etc.)
  • 2 teaspoon grated orange rind
  • teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice (enough to reach the right consistency)

Instructions
 

  • Put all ingredients into a food processor and process until finely chopped and the mixture sticks together.  If you find the mixture is dry, squeeze in orange juice until it starts to stick together.  
  • Press into a loaf pan and cut into squares.  Or form into squares or balls by hand.

Nutrition

Serving: 20gCalories: 68kcalCarbohydrates: 9gProtein: 1gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 3mgPotassium: 117mgFiber: 2gSugar: 6gVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 20mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Have you ever made dried fruit and nut candy?  What are your favorite combinations?

Grow Your Own Food In-Person Worksop

Saturday May 20th

$349

An intimate and hands on workshop

At Norris Farmstead

Click Here to Learn More

Want to grow a year’s worth of food?

Get my FREE planting chart!

Know exactly how many plants per person you need to plant with my easy worksheet and chart!

Related Posts

A woman's hands opening a freshly cooked bao bun.

EASIEST Homemade Bao Bun Recipe

Diced onions on a cutting board.

Homemade Cream of Onion Soup Substitute

Mozzarella cheese and whey separating out.

How to Make Whey in Four Easy Steps

Comments:

  1. Methane

    8 years ago

    Andrea, is there a storage life for these? Must they be eaten within a few days or can something be added to lengthen their storage life?

    Reply
    • Andrea Sabean

      August 4, 2015 at 1:11 am

      I have never kept ours beyond a week, simply because they don’t last that long! I do store them in the fridge, although we take them hiking and canoeing with us all the time and they seem to be fine. If you really wanted them to keep for longer you could try and make them without the orange juice, as dried fruit and nuts by themselves have great storage life. You might need to take out or reduce the coconut to get them to hold together without the liquid, but it would definitely be worth a try!

      Reply
  2. Brenda Young

    7 years ago

    Oh these sound delish and very much like the date snacks my mom gets at Whole foods, will have to get be this recipe a try for our camping trip snacks list

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      October 18, 2015 at 1:34 am

      Brenda,
      They were fabulous. Everyone on the trip loved them and I highly recommend them.

      Reply
  3. April

    January 2, 2017 at 7:32 am

    Fresh or dried fruit can transform an average candy into a decadent treat. Here you will find fruit candy recipes involving fresh, dried, and candied fruit, along with chocolate, nuts, and great candy ingredients. Visit us at https://gourmetnutsanddriedfruit.com/

    Reply
  4. April

    February 26, 2017 at 12:36 am

    Is it okay to add other kind of nuts?

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      February 26, 2017 at 5:01 am

      Sure! Feel free to sub in with what you have

      Reply
      • April

        February 28, 2017 at 6:44 am

        It looks so tempting. I cannot wait to make this one for my kids. And most of my ingredients that i bought is from online store. I recommend this online store that all their best products are mostly dried fruits and nuts and really best seller. If you have time, you can check this out:
        https://gourmetnutsanddriedfruit.com/

        Reply
  5. Lexie

    4 years ago

    I have looked all over your wonderful site before it occurred to me that you don’t have purple hull peas, lol! I’m so sorry! Anyway, the food probably doesn’t matter too much but I’m having a problem with the water disappearing from the top 2/3 of the jar. I have tried a variety of different things but nothing seems to change this from happening. Can you please advise me? I’m using different pressure cookers and getting the same results too.

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      4 years ago

      Hi Lexie,

      What you’re experiencing is very common and normal when canning a shelled pea or bean. As long as at least 1/2 the liquid is still in the jar you’re okay. You can try packing it slightly looser (less beans) so there’s a little bit more liquid as the peas are soaking up the liquid as the cook during the canning process.

      Reply
  6. Jeni

    June 8, 2020 at 4:39 am

    I wanted to try to make the Dried Fruit Candy, but when I saw the calorie count I wondered if that is for the complete batch or a single piece. It seems quite a lot of calories for a single piece.

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      3 years ago

      You can make them smaller, it depends on how big you make them, I erred on the larger side.

      Reply
      • Miriam

        8 months ago

        The nutrition info for the dried fruit candy says a single 10g piece is 1004 kcal, 82 g of sugar and 62 g of fat. Surely that is not correct? Seems out by an order of magnitude.

        Reply
  7. Michelle

    December 21, 2020 at 11:30 am

    My 84 yr old mom talked about fruit candy that her mother made. She mentioned that it was made after Thanksgiving then wrapped in brandy coated cheese cloth then it was ready for Christmas Anyone heard of this?

    Reply

Leave us a reply: Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recipe Rating




Melissa K. Norris

Follow me:

  • Start Here
  • Courses
  • Academy
  • Contact
Log In

Articles

  • Gardening
  • Homesteading
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • DIY

Podcast

  • Orchard Planning to Keep Pests Out (Live Coaching Call)
  • How to Boost Your Immune system (10 Easy Ways)
  • Homesteading With Special Needs Children
  • Seventh-Year Land Sabbath and Bread Baking Tips (Live Coaching Call)
  • Must-Have Pantry Items For Long-Term Storage

Books

  • Everything Worth Preserving
  • The Family Garden Planner
  • Hand Made
  • The Made From Scratch Life

Education

  • Organic Gardening Workshop
  • Home Fruit Preservative Canning e-course
  • Home Canning With Confidence
  • Homemade Bread & Baking Class
  • Natural Homemade Bath and Beauty
  • Pioneering Today Academy


Copyright 2023 - Melissa K. Norris Pioneering Today LLC

  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Disclaimer
  • Terms of Use

Melissa K. Norris and Pioneering Today LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

448 shares
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email