Homemade Fruit Leather

Homestead Lady Tessa Zundel

Adapt these basic instructions on how to make homemade fruit leather to use your favorite fruits and sweeteners. We offer several different methods of dehydrating the fruit leather, if you don't have a dehydrator.

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Course Snack

Cuisine American

Equipment

1 Blender
1 Rubber spatula
Dehydrator Trays or jelly roll pans for the oven

Ingredients

4 Cups Fruit - Seeded, Peeled, Chopped
1/2 Cup Raw Sugar
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice, Optional
1/4 Cup Water or Fruit Juice, as Needed

Instructions

Add the 4 cups of fruit, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (if using) to a blender body and blend until completely smooth. If the blender is struggling, add some water until it blends easily.
Line a dehydrator tray with a dehydrator sheet or silicone mat and pour the puree evenly onto it. Use a spatula to spread puree evenly over the tray. Be sure there aren't any holes or clumps in the spread. Even drying is the key to quality fruit leather that will last without molding.
Stack filled trays in the dehydrator and turn it on. Set the dehydrator to 135 F/57 C.
Start checking the fruit leather for doneness** at the 4 hour mark. It may take up to 6 hours; possibly 8 hours, if you're environment is humid.
Remove the fruit leather from the liner and allow it to cool. It should come off the liner easily; if it sticks or is still mushy, you know it needs more dehydrating time.
Cut the fruit leather into bite size pieces, strips or dothe classic fruit roll-up thing. Store in plastic or glass one month at room temperature and about a year if tightly wrapped and placed in the freezer.
You can also put wax paper or butcher paper in between yourrolls of homemade leather to ensure they don't stick to each other.

Notes

Four cups of fruit will make approximately 2 cups of puree. This will make about one dehydrator tray's worth of fruit leather.

Start at 1/2 cup of your favorite sugar and taste the fruit puree once the sugar is blended in. Add more sugar in 1-tablespoon increments, if you feel it needs to be sweeter.

You can use maple syrup and/or honey instead of granulated sugar. Start with 1/4 cup as they are both sweeter than regular sugar.

You can also use erythritol, stevia, or monk fruit sugar, but start with a few tablespoons and taste test. These alternative sugars can be much sweeter than sugar and also have a slight aftertaste.

You can add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to help prevent browning of your fruit leather as it dries.

If you don't have a dehydrator, use a rimmed baking sheet (like a jelly roll pan) and line it with parchment paper.

When using your solar oven, double check that your baking sheet will fit inside of it before you pour out your the puree. If the baking sheet is too large, you can use any pan that will fit.

A baking sheet just allows you to dehydrate a lot of fruit leather at once.

For best results, keep the thickness around 1/4 inch. The thinner the spread, the faster it will dry.

When fully dehydrated, your fruit leather should feel dry to the touch. Your finger should not be able to leave an indentation in the surface.

Stickiness isn't always a good gauge because fruit sugar is naturally sticky, but if you're concerned your leather is still too sticky, dehydrate it a bit more.

Keyword dried fruit, fresh fruit, zero waste food

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