Ever since I discovered how ridiculously easy it is to make your own fruit leathers/ fruit roll-ups, it’s my favorite way to use up leftover fruit. Sometimes I overbuy fruit, just so I can make them.
My latest version was with strawberries. Even though the berries are a little bit on the tart side, I found that no additional sugar was necessary. The sugars really come out during the drying process and the fruit leathers ended up being quite sweet all on their own.
It’s a little scary how easily I can gobble these up. It’s almost like eating candy.
I can’t wait until the weather gets warmer and more fruits come in season to work with.
Strawberry Fruit Leather
Ingredients
- 6 cups of chopped hulled strawberries
- sugar to taste if needed I didn't add any to mine. the strawberry batter actually gets a little sweeter during the drying process
Instructions
- Blend fruit and sugar (if using) in blender until smooth.
- Set oven at lowest temperature setting (mine was at 170°F). Line two 13 x 18 baking sheet with Silpat mats.
- Pour fruit mixture onto silpat mats and spread with the back of a large spoon until the fruit mixture makes a sheet about a 1/8 inch thick across the surface of the silpat.
- Place baking sheets in the oven and bake for 6-8 hours, until fruit is dry. When you touch it, it should be still a little sticky, but it should be set and solid (not wet) like fruit leather.
- Let fruit leather cool. Once it is finished cooling, gently peel off the fruit leather from the Silpat. It should come off the mat easily. Cut small pieces of parchment paper (to desired length and width of fruit leather strips you want), then cut fruit leather to slightly under the size of the parchment paper. Place onto parchment paper and roll together. Tie with a string to hold the roll. Repeat with rest of fruit leather. Store in airtight container in a cool space.
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Have you tried to use a food dehydrator instead the oven on making the fruit roll-up? My husband has a dehydrator that he uses to make beef jerky on so was wondering if one can use it for rollups too… Although I don’t know how messy it will get…hmmm.
You can if your fruit dehydrator has solid trays. I’ve done it before but I prefer the oven. I had difficulty getting mine off the tray and I wasn’t able to roll them into nice roll-ups because my fruit dehydrator tray is donut shaped.
I have seen a lot of recipes that says cook the fruit. Is cooking it not required prior.to.baking it.for this one.
Thank you
Nope, cooking is not needed. I’ve seen a lot that require cooking and then found ones that didn’t. So I tried it without the cooking and it still comes out great.
Putting these in the oven now and setting my oven timer for 6 hours. I can’t wait to sample them and see how they turn out! I added only a tsp of honey to mine, thanks to your caution about the strawberry leathers sweetening as they dry. I’ve been eager to make leathers and with the 3 cups of organic strawberries I got in my CSA this week. I decided to give it a try!
Hope you like it! I’m addicted to making fruit rolls.
What an easy little snack!
Definitely!
Fantastic idea, I can’t wait to try it out this weekend!
Hope you enjoy!
i didnt know it is this easy to make fruit rollups, WOW
Will this have the house smelling like fruit.
Only thing is having the oven all for 8hrs… that is alot.
could i make a small bacth in a toaster over ?
Yes it is a long time. I’m pretty sure it wont work in a toaster oven. fruit takes a long time to dry and there really is now way to get around the long dehydration period. The good thing is that the oven temp is set so low that I don’t worry about the house burning down if I go out of the house for a bit. So sometimes I do it in the morning, and just remember to set an alarm to turn it off in the evening
Have you tried drying/baking the fruit directly onto parchment paper and cutting strips from that? I wonder if the parchment would get all sticky and wrinkly though. Hmm, I should try that out myself.
I have not. I’m not sure how well it would work. I think using parchment paper to dry the fruit out on may not be sturdy enough and it may stick. The silpat mat works wonders though.
I might have to try this!
Strawberries are a buck a pound and this looks delicious.
Have you tried other fruit and flavour combinations?
I’ve also done persimmons and mangoes. Both worked really well. I actually preferred those two over the strawberry mainly because those fruits have a pulpier batter that makes the fruit rolls a little more thick. The strawberry was a little thin but still good!