One thing you can do with the excess fruit of the season is to make fruit leather, sort of the beef jerky of fruit. I used to love this stuff as a kid! It made for a great snack, gave us instant energy, and was easy to pack.
Guidelines for Fruit Leather
What follows is a general guideline to making fruit leather, no set recipe. So much of it depends on the specific fruit you are working with. Do you have a preferred way of making fruit leather? I’m curious to know. I imagine not all fruit are best processed the same way. Some might work well mixed in with other things, like cherries with ground almonds, for example. Some people prefer to process just the raw fruit; I like cooking the fruit first to up the intensity of the flavor, and kill any bacteria that might be lurking around on the fruit. When apple butter season starts, I may make a fruit leather batch with extra ground cloves, cinnamon and cider vinegar. The leftover fruit mush from making a clear jelly would be great for making fruit leather (thinking of the quince jelly now).
Alternatives to the Oven
If you have a food dehydrator, this would be a great use of it. My mother suggested putting the tray in the Weber grill, and leaving covered in the sun all day. Sounds like a good trick, but I haven’t tried it yet. My parents remember the traditional way of making fruit leather was just to tent the tray with some cheesecloth and leave it outside in the sun on a hot day. If you have a favorite approach to fruit leather with a favorite fruit, please let us know in the comments.
Berries - like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberriesStone fruits - e.g. apricots, plum, peachesTropical fruits - like mangos and papayaOther fruits - like apples, pears, , kiwi, grapes
Sweetening Fruit Leather
The nice thing about fruit leather is that you don’t need to add sugar or lemon to preserve the fruit. The process of removing the moisture is what preserves the fruit. You can add sugar to balance out the flavor if needed, but you can use other sweeteners (honey, agave, maple syrup, and the like) instead. We suggest adding lemon not only to brighten the flavor, but the citric acid helps preserve the color of some fruits.
How Long Does Fruit Leather Last?
You can easily store fruit leather, rolled up and placed in a large lidded jar or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 1 month. For longer storage (up to 6 months), refrigerate your fruit leather. For even longer storage (up to 1 year), you can freeze your homemade treats.
Alternatives to Plastic Wrap
If you don’t want to use plastic wrap, you can line your baking tray with parchment or a silicone mat. The quality of the plastic wrap itself has a lot to do with safely cooking with it. You can read more about safely using plastic here (it’s about using plastic in sous vide cooking, but totally applies here as well). Be sure not to use wax paper, since wax melts when heated.
Fruit Leather in a Dehydrator
Got a dehydrator? Lucky you! Follow the recipe up to Step 4. Then pour out onto the fruit leather tray of your dehydrator (if your machine came with one). You can also cut out parchment paper to size, and line the trays of your dehydrator. Set your dehydrator to 140°F (60°C) and let it do its magic for at least 6 or up to 12 hours. The actual time will depend on the type of fruit you’re using and the thickness of your leather. But we’ve found that 8 to 10 hours is the sweet range for making fruit leather in our dehydrator. Check your fruit occasionally. The fruit leather is done when it’s dried and not sticky to the touch.
More Fruit Snack Recipes to Try!
Mexican Fruit Cocktail Berries and Bananas Fruit Salad Strawberry Nectarine Fruit Salad Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles Parfait with Maple Yogurt, Citrus, and Pomegranate
If you’re working with apples or pears, peel and core them, then chop. If working with grapes, de-stem them. Taste the fruit before proceeding. Note how sweet the fruit is. If very sweet (ripe Concord grapes, for example) you won’t need to add any sugar. If still a little tart, you may need to add some sugar in the next step. Bring to a simmer, cover, and let cook on a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the fruit is cooked through. Uncover and stir. Use a potato masher to mash up the fruit in the pan. If needed, add the sugar in small amounts (1 tablespoon at a time), to your desired level of sweetness. Add lemon juice 1 teaspoon at a time to help brighten the flavor of the fruit. Add a pinch or two of cinnamon, nutmeg, or other spices to augment the flavor, if you’d like. Continue to simmer and stir until any added sugar is completely dissolved and the fruit purée has thickened, another 5 or 10 (or more) minutes. Taste again and adjust the sugar/lemon/spices, if necessary. Place the baking sheet in the oven. Try to keep any plastic wrap from touching the sides of the oven or the oven racks. Also, try to make sure the plastic wrap hasn’t folded back over on top of the purée. If this happens, the purée won’t dry out. If you have a convection setting, use it. It will speed up the drying process. Let dry in the oven for as long as it takes for the purée to form fruit leather. We usually keep it in the oven overnight, about 8 to 12 hours. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky to the touch. To store it, roll it in its plastic wrap, put it in an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator or freezer.
