The advantages of making your fruit leathers are to save money, use less sugar, and to mix up the flavors. Leftover fruit pulp can be blended and made into sweet fruit rolls. Also, with less sugar, fruit leather can be a great and healthy snack for diabetic kids and adults. Follow these directions and you’ll make a fantastic bowl of fruit leather.

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Canned fruit preparation:

• Drain the fruit and save the liquid

• Use one pint of fruit for each 13”x 15” leather

• Puree fruit until its smooth. If it’s thick, add saved liquid

• Add two teaspoons of lemon juice

• Applesauce can be dried alone or added to any fresh fruit puree as an extender. It decreases tartness and makes the leather smoother and more pliable

Step one is to preheat your dehydrator to 135 degrees. When you’re drying fruit leather you have to use something without any holes so the juice doesn’t go through. Parchment paper should be enough, if it’s too thin, don’t hesitate to use multiple layers.

Puree your fruit, whether it’s fresh or canned fruit. Two cups of puree should be enough to cover one parchment paper. If you planned to sweeten up, this is the moment to do it. After you’re done with pouring your puree, smooth it out with a rubber spatula, you want the same thickness everywhere.

Dry fruit leather at 140 degrees. Leather dries from the outside edge toward the center. To test for dryness, touch the center of leather, no indentation should be evident. The larger fruit leathers take longer to dry. Approximate drying times are 6 to 8 hours in a dehydrator, although it depends on the humidity of the room as well. The more humid your environment is, the longer it will take to dry the leather.

• While warm, peel from plastic and roll, allow it to cool down for a bit and then rewrap the roll in plastic. Cookie cutters can be used to cut out some interesting shapes. The fruit leather will not last long enough for storage in many cases.

• If it does, it will keep up to 1 month at room temperature. For storage up to 1 year, place wrapped rolls in the freezer. Remember, it’s crucial to let the leather cool at room temperature.

Shapes and design

This is the best part of making fruit leather. Your artistic liberty is going to help you make some interesting shapes. If you have kids who like certain cartoon characters, and you have the tools needed to cut them from fruit leather, the sky is the limit.

Let your imagination do the work and you’ll impress your guests, kids, and you neighbors as well when you invite them over.

The Conclusion:

Fruit leather is quite easy to make. The resources you need for this fantastic snack are quite minimal. All you need is some fruit, a dehydrator, and patience. The combinations you can make are immensely vast. Whether you like lemon combined with cinnamon or orange combined with lime juice, it doesn’t matter; there are no limits. On top of the aesthetic factor, fruit leather is also very healthy.

If you have enough creativity and motivation, you can make amazing projects, shapes, and flavors. Try some of the delicious additions like coconut, granola, marshmallows, nuts, raisins, and more.