My mom used to make these all the time growing up. Fruit Leathers. I love that you don't have to add a ton of extra sugar to enjoy these fruits. It's a nice alternative to freezing and canning. This is a nice mess free way to let children eat fruit as well. Plus they are perfect for on-the-go snacks. In my busy life on-the-go snacks are unavoidable, so I figured they should be healthy ones!
* I have a food dehydrator but it was tied up with the bananas I bought on sale over the weekend. My peaches were turning fast, so I looked up a recipe on how to make them in the oven. If you have a dehydrator the directions are slightly different.
What you'll need:
Fruit
lemon juice (if needed)
sugar (if needed)
water
I used peaches and bananas, so I didn't add any sugar or lemon juice to mine.
Wash, peel, cut, and de-pit/core/seed your fruit.
* I have a food dehydrator but it was tied up with the bananas I bought on sale over the weekend. My peaches were turning fast, so I looked up a recipe on how to make them in the oven. If you have a dehydrator the directions are slightly different.
What you'll need:
Fruit
lemon juice (if needed)
sugar (if needed)
water
I used peaches and bananas, so I didn't add any sugar or lemon juice to mine.
Wash, peel, cut, and de-pit/core/seed your fruit.
For every 4 cups of fruit, add 1/2 cup water and simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes.
Throw them into the food processor or blender until smooth.
Throw back into the same pot and cook until nice and thick.
Line a cookie sheet with oven-safe plastic wrap.
Poor onto the cookie sheet until about 1/4 of an inch thick (about 4 cups of fruit is perfect for 1 cookie sheet).
Bake on 170 for about 10 hours.
When it's done it will be dry to the touch.
It will also easily peel from the plastic, but leave it on the plastic.
Cut the leather with the plastic still attached. You'll be rolling it up in the plastic wrap and storing it this way. I cut my pieces into roughly 6 inch squares.
Roll them up and store in an air tight container. It took me about 5 large white peaches and 1 banana to yield 6 roll-ups. ~ about 1 fruit per leather.
Fruits that brown easily such as apples will need 1 tsp of lemon juice per 4 cups. You will have to taste the fruit to see if you want it sweeter. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time until desired sweetness. My peaches were extremely sweet on their own, so I didn't need to add any. If your fruit is a little tart-blueberries for example, you'll probably want to add some.
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