Mixed Berry Fruit Leather

As a kid, I probably ate miles of Fruit Rollups.  I’m sure the ratio of fruit to High Fructose Corn Syrup was so out of whack, I wouldn’t even consider giving them to my own kids.  Which is why I decided to come up with my own homemade fruit leather recipe. 

Much like the way that leftover vegetables make great pickles, leftover fruit can be a good start to your own homemade fruit leather.  My preference for a base is mixed berries, but that’s because we always have several bags of frozen mixed berries from Costco in the freezer for making smoothies

How to Make Fruit Rollups with a Dehydrator

If you have a dehydrator, fruit leather is super easy to make.  Another popular recipe is my Garlic Beef Jerky.  In fact, my kids sometimes call this fruit jerky instead of fruit leather or fruit rollups. 

My home blender is a 4-cup model, so I’ll start by filling it almost halfway with thawed mixed berries that I buy in large quantities, such as these 4lb bags from Costco.  

The key to making it shelf stable, and still pretty sweet, is the balance of lemon juice and honey.  A good rule of thumb is to use 1T of Lemon Juice and 1T of Honey for every cup of fruit puree. The acid in the lemon juice is important here to prevent spoilage.

So what do you pour it on?  There are commercially available sheets available for lining your dehydrator trays, but I’ve found that Parchment Paper works great.  Just don’t use wax paper, or anything plastic based, or it will melt horrendously.

How Long to Dehydrate Fruit Leather

The minimum recommended temperature for fruit leather is 135 degrees.  The trick is that every dehydrator runs quite differently due to the size of the device, accuracy of the heater and efficiency of the fan.

My suggestion is that you check in on your mixed berry fruit leather around 4 hours on your first attempt. Check each tray and look at how it’s setting up in the middle.  If it’s still runny, obviously you need more time.

Check in again each hour to see how it’s doing.  The fruit leather should start pulling up easily at the corners, but not get crusty on the parchment paper. 

Print

Mixed Berry Fruit Leather Recipe

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

8 hrs

Total Time

8 hrs 15 mins

 

Homemade fruit leather made in a dehydrator

Author: Tony Bailey

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Mixed Berries
• 2 Peeled and Chopped Apples sweet, preferably not a Granny Smith
• 1 Sliced Banana
• 3 Peeled Kiwis
• 4 Tablespoons Lemon Juice fresh squeezed
• 4 Tablespoons Honey
• 1 cup 100% Fruit Juice such as apple

Instructions

1. Add the berries, banana and kiwis to your blender with a little bit of the apple juice to help it blend. Your goal here is to get a nice puree that you can spread on the sheets. If it is too chunky, and small amounts of the fruit juice, but be careful to not get it too thin.

2. Line each of your dehydrator trays with parchment paper and pour a thin layer onto each tray. Having a 10 tray dehydrator, and knowing how quickly this gets eaten, I’ll usually make two batches.

3. Dehydrate at 135 degrees for 6 to 8 hours. The center is the last part to cook, which you can poke at to see if it has cooked all the way.