Home Style Fruit Leather

Photo Credit

My kids love fruit leather.  Unfortunately, it's all too easy to find the stuff full of extra sugar and food coloring and inconveniently difficult to find the stuff that contains whole fruits and minimal added sugar.  That's why I like making our own fruit leather, well, that and it makes my house smell yummy and my kids think I'm awesome because mine is tastier than Fruit by the Foot.

My recipe:

Ingredients:

• 5 C fruit, fresh or frozen (thawed)
• My kids love trying different fruit combinations.  Their most unusual but delicious was apple lemon.  
• 2 TBS honey or to taste
• 1 TBS water as needed

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 150 or the lowest temp. available on your oven.
• Place fruit and honey in blender or food processor and puree.  Add water as needed to achieve consistency of thin baby food.
• Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  
• Pour puree over parchment paper and spread to an even, thin sheet.  Don't spread it too thinly though or you'll end up with fruit chips!
• Bake  for two to four hours (depending on oven temp and puree thickness), checking after two. Again, don't cook too long or you'll have fruit chips.
• You'll know they're done when the surface is not sticky but the leather is still flexible.
• Using very clean kitchen sheers, cut cooled fruit leather into strips (DO NOT remove from parchment paper first!).  
• Roll up and store in an air tight container.  
• Pro-tip:  My kids like to cut the leather into fun shapes like hearts, stars and even kitties. They love taking these shapes to school to share with friends.