Fruit Leather

One of the things we purchased when doing the Amazon.com textbook trade-in was a set of two fruit roll trays for our dehydrator.

I've been trying to figure out snacks to make at home, and fruit leather seemed like a great healthy snack option.  So, after checking the local store ads for what produce was on special, I went out and bought two pounds of strawberries, a pint of blueberries, and a pineapple.  I already had some apples and some lemons on hand.  Fruit leather is pretty easy to make; you can even make it in your oven if you don't have a dehydrator.  So, first I'll outline the process to be used for pretty much any fruit leather, then I'll give you the recipes I used for each of my two batches.


The Process:
Wash your fruit.  Cut the leaves and any bruised, moldy, and/or rotten parts off your strawberries.  Peel, core, and slice your apples.  You can view a great video on how to choose and cut up a pineapple here.  Put your fruit into a blender or food processor, then squeeze 1/2 lemon in with the fruit (use your hand, a cloth, or a strainer to catch any seeds).  Run the blender or food processor until fruit is thoroughly pureed.  Taste and add sweetener as necessary.

If you had some questionable spots on your fruit and/or you want to be extra careful, you may want to consider cooking your fruit for a few minutes to kill any bacteria that may cause harm.  Just put your puree in a pot and set it on your stove top at medium heat, stirring constantly, until it has been bubbling for a few minutes.  You don't have to boil it, you basically just want to pasteurize it.   In theory, when you dehydrate your fruit puree into fruit leather, the lack of moisture should inhibit any mold or bacterial growth.  However, your fruit leather will last longer if you take the extra step to kill any bacteria and mold that may be present at the time you dehydrate your fruit.  If you do cook it, you'll likely get some foam on the surface of your puree in the pot.  You can skim it off and mix it with yogurt as a nice flavoring, or you can just mix it back in once the puree cools.  I just mix it back in.

Once your puree has cooled and before spreading it, lightly grease your trays with vegetable oil (the cooking spray-can makes this really fast and convenient, but using a towel to spread a dollop of oil works too). Spread your fruit puree between 1/4 and 3/8 inch thick onto the sheets.  Dehydrate for 5-6 hours at 135 degrees F, rotating your trays once or twice during the process.

Fruit Leather Recipe #1:
1 lb strawberries
1/2 pint blueberries
2 1/2 apples
Juice from 1/2 lemon


Fruit Leather Recipe #2:
1 lb strawberries
1/2 pint blueberries
about 1/3 pineapple (after trimming)
1 apple


The Results:
Both of these made Great fruit leather!  I used Granny Smith apples because it's what I had, and I noticed that I had to use a fair amount of sweetener in recipe #1.  In recipe #2, because I used less of the tart apple and because my pineapple was So sweet, I decided not to use any sweetener at all.  Because I am using round trays, I just cut my fruit leather into 8 wedge shaped slices per tray, and because the bottoms are slightly lubricated with the oil I can stack them and stick them in a ziplock bag.  One wedge makes a nice light sweet treat with a meal, and they're healthy enough that even if you indulge in a second one it's pretty much guilt-free!