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Friday, May 7, 2010

Fruit Leather



Did you know you can make fruit roll-ups at home? With no added sugar, no preservatives, and for a fraction of the cost! Actually, I don't know about that, but the first two sold me. :)


I got this recipe from the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. She says you can puree any type of fruit and then dry it to make fruit leather - she lists several delicious combinations like strawberry/banana, or peach/mango...mmmm. :) Then she gives the easy (well, even easier!) recipes. And this is where I come in! :)


The first batch of fruit leather I made was strawberry - I thawed out a bag of frozen strawberries (sun-sweetened, no sugar added), pureed them in the blender, and poured them onto a cookie sheet. I tried to make sure the puree was evenly spread on the cookie sheet, but it was hard. Then I cooked the puree at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, and then turned the oven off and let the puree dry. It took about 8-10 hours for the edges to dry, and the middle never did - I ended up throwing it away a couple of days later. So either I did something wrong...I don't know. But the parts that did dry are delicious! And so natural!


Then I made apple fruit leather, using a half a jar of applesauce - I just poured it onto a cookie sheet and dried it just like the pureed strawberries. It dried about as well as the strawberry, actually the edges got a little burnt. :( And then I left the middle in to see if it would dry, but the next day I turned the oven on, forgetting it was in there, until I smelled burnt applesauce. So I don't know if it dried overnight or not. :)

There are other methods of drying in your oven, but they require you to leave the oven door open while it's hot, which I can't really do with Zachary around.So if anybody has any tips on drying, or any experience with fruit leather, I'd really appreciate any help! :) Even with the drying issues, however, this fruit leather is a delicious snack. I will definitely make it again! :)

4 comments:

Deni said...

Not gonna lie, I would totally do the same thing with my oven. Did I tell you we are gonna be out that way again in July - Aug? We will be there July 29 - Aug. 8.

Would you guys have time to maybe meet us somewhere or come up and go to the zoo or something in Buffalo? Or I am sure we could come to you!

I hope we can get some good time together!

Tiffany said...

Awesome!! I did not realize it was so easy to make fruit leather - it is sooo expensive to be in whole food stores! i am going to make some this afternoon! I have a whole freezer of strawberries. Thanks for sharing!

The Sneaky Mommy said...

Yum! We are definitely going to thy making that this week!!!

Julie said...

Thanks for the good idea! Wow, how simple but delish!