Fruit leathers

Homemade fruit leathers (AKA fruit roll ups) are super delicious and much healthier for you and your kids than the store bought, sugar-filled ones. They are super simple to make! Here's how...

I made 2 flavors of fruit leathers the other day, Strawberry Banana and Apple. Both were made the same way. I had frozen apples that were peeled, cored and sliced from the last time I went apple picking and I also had a bag of frozen, diced strawberries and bananas in my freezer so I pulled out approx 2 cups of frozen apples and 2 cups of strawberry/banana mix. Let that thaw out. Once it's thawed out, mix approx 2 cups of plain applesauce (feel free to use reduced/ no sugar added, there is plenty of sugar in the fruit to keep it sweet)  to the fruit in a food processor and blend until you have a smooth consistency. It should be smooth like baby food. Next, take the plastic tray made for fruit roll ups for your dehydrator and very lightly spray with cooking spray. I do this to ensure it comes off smoothly. The tray are non-stick, but I've experienced sticking in spots before. Pour the mixture around and smooth it out until it is evenly spread over the tray. You want this to be about 1/4" thick. This should be about the depth of the tray. Note that this will only make 1 tray of fruit leathers. If you want to make 2 trays, just double the recipe.

Dehydrate for 4-8 hours. I know its seems like a big gap, but depending on how thick you spread the fruit mixture determines how long it needs to dehydrate for. You want to dehydrate it until it is no longer wet looking or squishy to the touch. Each tray can make about 8 fruit leathers, depending on how big you want to make them. Cut the leathers to a desired size and roll them up in plastic wrap, otherwise they will stick together. Be sure your plastic wrap is wider than your roll up so you can close the ends off as well. Enjoy!

The reason you want to add apple sauce to any fruit mixture (yes, even the strawberry banana) is that apples are a natural source of pectin. Pectin is what is used to help "gel" various jams, jellies, jello, etc. By adding the applesauce, it will help it to keep more of a fruit roll up/ fruit leather consistency without it drying out and getting hard. You can still dry it out to the point it is fairly hard and super chewy. As you try this, you will determine the type of fruit leather consistency you prefer. Whether it be harder and chewier vs. softer. Don't worry, plain applesauce doesn't add flavor. My strawberry banana ones still tasted like strawberry banana.

Both of these were taken prior to dehydrating, hence the reason they still look wet. :)