Fruit leather
I had a bunch of peaches that I got this weekend, so I was pretty excited to use them. They weren't very good though, not much flavor and not sweet. I was dissapointed.. But I decided to try my hand at fruit leather since the kids love fruit roll ups and I could add lots of sugar to counter act the lack of flavor... great thing about fruit leather is, you don't have to add any sugar is you don't want to.. more healthy!
I had a bunch of peaches that I got this weekend, so I was pretty excited to use them. They weren't very good though, not much flavor and not sweet. I was dissapointed.. But I decided to try my hand at fruit leather since the kids love fruit roll ups and I could add lots of sugar to counter act the lack of flavor... great thing about fruit leather is, you don't have to add any sugar is you don't want to.. more healthy!
Ingredients
Fresh fruit (apricots, peaches, plums, berries, apples, pears,)
Water
Lemon juice
Sugar (if needed)
Spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg (optional)
Directions...
Rinse the fruit. If you working with stone fruit, take out the pits, chop the fruit. If working with apples or pears, peel and core them, then chop. Taste the fruit, if it is really sweet then you will use less sugar, if it is tart you will use more...
Place fruit in a large saucepan. Add a half cup of water for every 4 cups of chopped fruit. Bring to a simmer, cover and let cook on a low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the fruit is cooked through. Uncover and stir. Use a potato masher to mash up the fruit in the pan. Taste the fruit and determine what and how much sugar, lemon juice, or spices to add. Add sugar in small amounts, to desired level of sweetness. Add lemon juice one teaspoon at a time to help brighten the flavor of the fruit. Add a pinch or two of cinnamon, nutmeg, or other spices to augment the flavor. I did peach leather so I didn't add any spices... but I bet it would be yummy with pear.
Continue to simmer and stir until any added sugar is completely dissolved and the fruit purée has thickened, another 5 or 10 minutes (or more).
Blend fruit in food processor or blender.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper Pour out the purée into the lined baking sheet to about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. I shook the pan side to side slightly to even out the puree.
Bake at 140 to 190 (mine only goes as low as 170 but I baked mine at 190 to slightly speed up the process) all day. It took mine about 6 hours.
When fruit leather is ready, it will no longer be sticky to the touch and will peel off easily after it has slightly cooled.
YUMMY!!!
Fresh fruit (apricots, peaches, plums, berries, apples, pears,)
Water
Lemon juice
Sugar (if needed)
Spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg (optional)
Directions...
Rinse the fruit. If you working with stone fruit, take out the pits, chop the fruit. If working with apples or pears, peel and core them, then chop. Taste the fruit, if it is really sweet then you will use less sugar, if it is tart you will use more...
Place fruit in a large saucepan. Add a half cup of water for every 4 cups of chopped fruit. Bring to a simmer, cover and let cook on a low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the fruit is cooked through. Uncover and stir. Use a potato masher to mash up the fruit in the pan. Taste the fruit and determine what and how much sugar, lemon juice, or spices to add. Add sugar in small amounts, to desired level of sweetness. Add lemon juice one teaspoon at a time to help brighten the flavor of the fruit. Add a pinch or two of cinnamon, nutmeg, or other spices to augment the flavor. I did peach leather so I didn't add any spices... but I bet it would be yummy with pear.
Continue to simmer and stir until any added sugar is completely dissolved and the fruit purée has thickened, another 5 or 10 minutes (or more).
Blend fruit in food processor or blender.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper Pour out the purée into the lined baking sheet to about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. I shook the pan side to side slightly to even out the puree.
Bake at 140 to 190 (mine only goes as low as 170 but I baked mine at 190 to slightly speed up the process) all day. It took mine about 6 hours.
When fruit leather is ready, it will no longer be sticky to the touch and will peel off easily after it has slightly cooled.
YUMMY!!!
2 comments:
YUMMY, I might just have to try this. How do you store them if not all eatin?
I have been told that you can freeze them, but we just kept ours in a airtight container until they were gone. I figure if you kept them sitting there for more then a couple weeks they would probably go bad, but my two boys ate them way fast so I didn't find out :)
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