Make Your Own Fruit Leather

Fruit leather is easy to eat, easy to pack, and kids love it. Fruit leather roll-ups make a great picnic snack or after school snack. And when you make your own fruit leather, you can blend your choice of flavors and leave peels in for added fiber. Homemade fruit leather is tastier, less expensive and more nutritious than many marketed varieties. Here's how to make your own homemade fruit leather.

Tools You Need for Making Fruit Leather

Making fruit leather is fairly easy and a great kid project too. It takes a blender and a food dehydrator. Some people make fruit leather in the oven, but I prefer using an electric commercial food dehydrator for reliable results and ease. My Excalibur dehydrator with Teflon sheets works miracles.

Fruit for Making Fruit Leather

You can choose from many kinds of fruit, but citrus fruit and bananas are problematic on their own. They do blend well, however. You can even use fruit pulp that you have left over from making jelly. Just count on using lots of fruit when you make fruit leather. The dehydration process removes a lot of moisture, and there will be shrinkage.

Preparing Fruit for Fruit Leather

You want to wash your fruit, dry it well, and remove any pits, seeds or blemishes. If you're peeling your fruit, do it before you puree. The blender does a fine job of pureeing, but with larger fruit, you may want to cut chunks to help the process. The texture you are looking for is that of applesauce. In fact, you can use canned unsweetened applesauce to make fruit leather.

Sweeteners and Fruit Leather

If you use very tart fruit like rhubarb or cranberries, you will need to add a sweetener. Honey, pure maple syrup, or agave nectar would be your best choices. If you do add a liquid sweetener, use 1 tablespoon per cup of puree. It will give you a stickier leather, but it might also keep it pliable.

Some people add corn syrup or sugar, but who needs that? Sugar may even cause a brittle effect. I prefer to let the fruit carry the flavor and speak for itself. Flavors intensify in the drying; so little sweetening is needed.

Preventing Fruit Oxidation

Some fruits will need attention to keep them from discoloring. Fruits like apples, pears, apricots, and peaches benefit from added lemon juice or ascorbic acid crystals. To prevent browning you can use 1 cup lemon juice to 1 quart water and submerge your fruit for about 5-10 minutes.

Or you could concentrate flavors, shorten drying time, and reduce oxidation of light fruit by simmering fruit until it's soft. You may need to start off with a bit of water in your pan and cook the water out.

Using Frozen Fruit for Fruit Leather

Do you have any frozen fruit in your freezer to use up? Frozen fruit works well for making fruit leather. You can drain off some of the juice that creates when it thaws and cut down on the drying time.

Dehydrating Process for Fruit Leather

On each dehydrator tray, pour 2 cups puree about a quarter-inch thick and spread out. In the center of the tray, spread to an eighth-inch thick, because the edges dry faster. Turn your dehydrator temperature to 135-140 degrees, and dehydrate fruit leather for 4-8 hours.

The leather is done when it's shiny and tacky--but no sticky spots. Drying time varies depending upon your temperature setting, location of trays, liquid content of fruit puree, and thickness of fruit puree on the trays. You will want to check your fruit leather every few hours and rotate trays as necessary.

Making Fruit Leather Roll-Ups

While fruit leather is still warm remove it from the tray and roll into a scroll. Some people put plastic wrap on either side of the fruit leather before rolling, and some people roll fruit without plastic. Once rolled, seal your roll-ups in plastic. Don't roll or seal in wax paper or aluminum foil. You can also cut fruit rolls into 1 inch slices for bite-sized snacks.

Storing Your Fruit Leather

Store your fruit leather in plastic freezer bags for up to a month at room temperature, several months in the refrigerator, or up to a year in the freezer. Pay attention to fruit leather stored at warm room temperatures; it may grow mold after several weeks.

Fruit Leather Creativity

Be creative with your fruit leather blends. Think about adding spices to your puree for additional flavor. Cinnamon and nutmeg added to apple puree give the taste of an apple pie. And if you find you are not eating all your fruit roll-ups, you can always cook with them. Fruit leather bits can take the place of raisins in various dishes.

Next time you decide to process fruit, consider making fruit leather. Not only is fruit leather easy to make, but it's also a portable and nutritious snack that everyone loves.