How To Make Fizzy Fruit And Beat The Heat

Fizzy fruit is a recipe that basically turns boring old regular fruit into cool, hip, fun fruit. It still tastes mostly the same, but now has a fizz that you can feel when you eat it. It feels very similar to pop rocks.

As far as I’m concerned there are two types of recipes that are genuinely great recipes. The first is any recipe that gives me quality time kid free. I consider this “personal development” time. And as precious and as wonderful as this type of recipe is, I know that it comes with a price because it means my husband will need to cover the kids and will therefore require his own “personal development” time later (or sometimes prior and he owes me). The other great type of recipe is one that I can do with the kids. And since my little ones are still pretty little (3 and 1, AFIK), it has to be an extremely simple recipe.

Fortunately, making Fizzy Fruit, or carbonated fruit as it is sometimes called, is as easy as it gets! Plus fun, potentially educational, slightly dangerous (but not really), cool mom, kind of way. There are only two ingredients in Fizzy Fruit: Dry Ice and Fruit. That’s it!

“But wait a minute, lady,” you might be saying. “Isn’t dry ice dangerous? Won’t I freeze my fingers off? I need those fingers for Instagram and stuff!” I hear and validate your concerns. But you are completely wrong. Not about Instagram, of course you need your fingers for that, but about dry ice being dangerous. Dry ice is actually cool! Very cool! It is that reputation for danger that makes dry ice so cool. Also the very low temperature. Yes if you sit there and hold it for a prolonged period you can freeze/burn your hand. But even just picking it up is completely fine. In fact that FAA allows you to travel with up to 5.5 pounds of dry ice which means that the US government views it as being less dangerous that nail clippers or large shampoo bottles.

What is dry ice? Dry ice is basically frozen carbon dioxide (CO2 for you nerds out there). It is cooled to below -109.3 °F so that it becomes a solid. When it warms back up above -109.3 °F (basically anytime my husband isn’t in charge of the thermostat), then dry ice sublimates, which means it goes straight from a solid to a gas. This is the same process that occurs to any solid I eat while nervous.

“But isn’t CO2 toxic and responsible for global warming? Should I be putting this in my children’s food?” Yes, and yes, you nerd. It is also what trees are made of. And, this is where we try to steer this long and rambling intro back to the recipe, what soda is made of. That’s right, those fizzy bubbles in your diet Dr. Pepper are carbon dioxide. And it also happens to be an important part of the wine making process.

Where To Get Dry Ice

So where does someone acquire some of this dry ice? At the same place you get your fruit… the farmer’s market! Just kidding, you can get it at most grocery stores. I usually get mine at Kroger.

Fizzy Fruit Recipe

Ingredients

• Dry Ice: Amount varies depending on your container. For a large cooler use about half a pound, for a nalgene bottle size, use about a thumbnail amount.
• Fruit: Any kind of fruit will work, but softer fruits like bananas can get a little too mushy.

Amount of Time
About 5 minutes or less of prep time. 8-14 hours letting it carbonate.

Recipe

1. Add your dry ice to your container. For us, we use a small cooler and include about a fist sized amount of dry ice. You can use containers as large as 5 gallon coolers or as small as water bottles. If you are using a water bottle make sure that you are using a hard plastic or metal water bottle with thick lids. If you use a cheap, regular plastic water bottle it will explode. I’m not kidding, this is how you make a dry ice bomb and is awesome but probably something you shouldn’t teach your kids.
2. Cover your dry ice with a dish towel or other cloth. This is to prevent the fruit from freezing before it carbonates. If the fruit directly touches the dry ice, you would just have a bunch of frozen fruit, which is fine for putting in lemonade but not nearly as fun as fizzy fruit.
3. Once your dry ice is insulated with a cloth, add your fruit! Add as much as you want.
4. If it is in a water bottle, just screw the lid on all the way to make sure it is air tight. If you are using a cooler, wrap it completely in clear plastic wrap to keep the gas from escaping. Don’t be shy with the plastic wrap. Accidentally letting some gas out could potentially be a little embarrassing.
5. Let sit overnight or for at least 8 hours. 10-14 is ideal, but longer than 2 days and your fruit might get too mushy.
6. Enjoy!