Summer Recipe: Fruit Roll-Ups

Here's an easy recipe for homemade fruit roll-ups (or fruit leather).

First, thanks for all your comments and excitement over yesterday's post. I never know how things are going to go over and when we got home from the zoo I was floored by all your comments! Thanks!

Ok, now for the fruit roll-ups...

I've always been a sucker for Stretch Island Fruit Leather. I buy it for my kids and tell myself, "It's healthy, good for them, low sugar and worth paying more for!" But then I eat it all and save them none. So, I had this idea to make some. A little online research and I came up with my own recipe.

The fruit stands in our country are overflowing, what a great time to make some fruit roll-ups. Or if you have access to fruit trees and you aren't picking already you will be soon. My parents happen to have fruit trees {apples, pears, and peaches} that aren't quite ready but they are drowning in blueberries. When we were in town a few days ago we stopped by the peach wagon for some peaches.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree; the two of us together and little bartering we bought the "over ripe boxes" for a price so low they might as well have paid us to take them.

I didn't take a picture of our peaches because quite frankly they were over ripe and extremely ugly. But once you got past the skin and a few soft spots they were sweet and perfect!

The first batch was BLUEBERRY PEACH. After I processed them in the food processor I added them to the blender because I realized the food processor didn't "blend" well enough. So, disregard the above picture {I just liked it} and just add them to the blender. I also added a few cups of unsweetened applesauce and the juice of 1/2 a lemon to the mix.

The second batch was PEACH.

I poured my mixture into a HEAVY saucepan. It wasn't quite sweet enough so I added 1/2 cup of sugar. I know the point is to make them low sugar, but this isn't a ton of sugar and the other point is for it to be edible. If you don't want to add the sugar you could probably add some crushed grapes, they are super sweet and would give it the natural sugar boost it needs.

I brought it to a boil. Reduced the heat and skimmed the foam off the top. {If you're into canning, the foam that collects over this is similar to the foam that collects on top of your preserves.}

Once the foam was skimmed off with a spoon, I kept it over low heat and let it simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring frequently, to reduce it.

While it reduced the girls had the twins {the ones with the precious puppies} over from across the street and I decided to snap a few pictures of what they were up to. And because I know you'll want to see more of Brooke.

You'll know you're properly "reduced" when you scrape a spatula across the bottom of the pan and the red sea stays parted.

Then you can pour your mixture into a lined cookie sheet. I used parchment paper on one and plastic wrap on the other. If you use plastic wrap I suggest you buy the kind that is heat safe.

Both the parchment and plastic wrap worked great. It's a toss up as to which method I would prefer. So use which ever you have. It will be about 1/4" thick but will reduce to about half of that when it bakes.

Be sure to spread your fruit evenly across the pan. Place it in an oven preheated to 145 degrees. If you have convection use it. Leave the mixture in the oven over night or around 8 to 10 hours. It will have a slight tack when it's done but not stick to your fingers. Here are my two batches; Blueberry Peach on the left and Peach on the right.

Mom will probably fuss over her cluttered kitchen, I'll assure her y'all don't mind and that you will actually be pleased to see a mess.

When it's done the edges will easily remove from the paper like this:

Using a pizza cutter & a ruler I cut strips in the dried fruit.

I cut a strip of parchment paper and layed it over the strip of fruit and started to roll like this.

When you're done you can trim the extra paper off the ends and it will look like this:

One cookie sheet of fruit will yield 8 to 10 fruit roll-ups. I also did a few smaller ones by cutting a line horizontally through my original cuts and the smaller size is more suitable for toddlers. It will keep for a week in an air tight container or ziploc bag... but it's likely it won't be around long enough to spoil.

My kids sure loved it.

The zoo was fun too... more on that later.

I don't have access to Adobe on this computer to PDF the recipe, when I get home I'll create a "printer friendly" version. Until then, here's one you can jot down and really the possibilities are endless... just keep in mind a 5 cup blender full of fruit will yield one cookie sheet of fruit leather:

Blueberry Peach Fruit Leather

4 peaches peeled and sliced
juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 heaping cups blueberries
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup of sugar {optional}

Blend fruit ingredients in blender until smooth. Add to heavy saucepan and add sugar if needed, bring to boil while stirring. Reduce heat and skim foam from the top with a spoon. Simmer over low/medium heat for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring frequently, until mixture has properly reduced. Pour mixture onto a parchment or plastic wrapped cookie sheet and bake at 145 {with convection if you have it} for 8 to 10 hours. Cut into strips and roll up with parcment.

Peach Fruit Leather
8 peaches peeled and sliced
2 cups of unsweetened applesauce
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1/2 cup of sugar {optional}

Follow directions above.