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They are basically stiff jam that has been cut into pieces and tossed in sugar. The ingredients are: fruit, sugar, pectin, and some acid which is cooked until stable. Pâte de fruit recipes often have corn syrup/glucose to prevent crystallization, too.
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One legend is that a mother was making jam, got called away, and came back to congealed fruit which she fed to her children as candy. This shows the idea of a mistake turning into a discovery.
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Pate de Fruit (pronounced Pat day Fwee) literally translates to "fruit paste"
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In actuality pate de fruit was probably used as a way to preserve additional fruits from a harvest. The sugar coating was a common preserving method.
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Natural pectin levels vary from fruit to fruit but quince was a popular choice originally for its high levels of pectin and pleasant taste when cooked.
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Pectin was first isolated in 1825 by Henri Braconnot.
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In 1915 a candy manufacturer named Percy Truesdell started producing a gumdrop with an enhanced texture, using a formula he developed while conducting experiments at Ohio State University.
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The first versions of the gumdrop were early 1920s, but the one we all know didn’t hit the shelf till 1945 — DOTS .
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By the mid-1900s gumdrops had become a very popular candy in America as is evident in its inclusion in the popular children's board game Candy Land.
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Fruit flavors are not the only options nowadays, a popular flavor is vanilla bean. Acid, such as lemon, is still often added to help the pectin stabilize the mixture.
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February 15th is National Gumdrop Day!
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Considered a classic French petit four, they are often sold as gift sets.
