Strawberry Fruit Leather

Jul 23rd, 2008 by Marie

Every year my mom and I make Apricot Fruit Leather. It’s so good and super healthy. Since I posted it last year, someone asked if other fruit could be used. My mom remembers trying other flavors in the past, but always had the best success with apricots. So I decided to take up the challenge of trying some other flavors out. This week it was Strawberries and it turned out great.

strawberry-fruit-leather

I used the exact same recipe from Apricot Leather for the Strawberry. 2 cups strawberries, 2 T. honey, 1 T. lemon juice. Blend, spread, and dry.

I’ve heard you can dry your leather in the oven at a very low temp, but I love to do it in the sun. I use these old drying racks, but you can use almost anything, as long as the top is covered with holes to let in sun and air, but keep out bugs and dirt. The Strawberry leather took a little bit longer to dry, an extra day, but still delicious. And I don’t even notice the little seeds.

Since Strawberry Leather was such a success, I’m on to peach and possibly plum. I will have to take off the skins of those ones and that may make it a little too time consuming to be worth it, well see. What fruit have you tried to dry before?

Posted in Recipes | 26 Comments

26 Responses to “Strawberry Fruit Leather”

on 23 Jul 2008 at 5:40 am1 Lacie

That looks sooo yummy!
on 23 Jul 2008 at 6:16 am2 Cass Ward

I actually have a Sunbeam Fruit Drier. I have dried my own fruit plenty of times but have never tried the fruit leather because I didn’t have a recipe now I might have to give it a go.
on 23 Jul 2008 at 7:31 am3 Amy

I’ve never tried it before, but it looks very do-able. Would you mind sharing where one can buy the drying trays?
on 23 Jul 2008 at 7:48 am4 Jeri

I wonder if my kids would eat that. If it were strawberry I bet they would… Thanks for a great recipe!
on 23 Jul 2008 at 9:03 am5 christy

i have made strawberry, blueberry/peach, peach and a mixed berry. my little boy loves them all and would just eat them like there is no tomorrow. i haven’t made any yet this summer though.
on 23 Jul 2008 at 9:05 am6 Janel

I have many happy memories of my grandma’s apricot fruit leather. Thanks for the recipe, and for working out the kinks of the strawberry…that looks awesome!
on 23 Jul 2008 at 9:36 am7 Amanda

Hi Marie! That looks so good! We used to make apple butter when I was a kid (basically you make applesauce, add a fair bit of cinnamon, then cook it down all day–we used a crockpot) then make fruit leather out of that. Such a fond memory from childhood :) We’re headed out to visit my parents in a big agricultural center in California tomorrow and we’ll be doing a lot of fruit picking. We’ll plan to try it there!

http://www.kiddio.org
on 23 Jul 2008 at 10:48 am8 Brianne

My mom used to make plum, it is delicious. It was my favorite fruit leather flavor and I don’t even like fresh plums. I remember there being big flecks in it; I think she might have left the skin on. Besides strawberry she also tried strawberry banana which was pretty good and apple.
on 23 Jul 2008 at 11:42 am9 Stephanie

Yum Yum Yum! I want to make blueberry!
on 23 Jul 2008 at 12:11 pm10 Toblerone @ Simple Mom

Great recipe! Thanks for sharing; I’ve always wanted to make this but thought it was too hard. This sounds easy!
on 23 Jul 2008 at 5:00 pm11 jennie

Sorry, I must be dense, but what are those drying racks for exactly? How do I find them?

I saw a mom feeding fruit-by-the-fruit to her kid on a plane the other day. I thought it would be a great travel snack but would much prefer a homemade recipe to one with processed garbage in it.

Thanks!
on 24 Jul 2008 at 8:22 am12 Marie

For the drying racks, they actually came from my Mom’s fruit dryer at home. I didn’t want to lug the whole dryer to my house, so I just took the racks to use in the sun.

You don’t actually need racks. You can use any kind of tray to lay your plastic on. And you don’t really need anything on top either. I do put a screen on top to keep the bugs out, but let air in.

What other things have any of you used to dry the fruit?
on 24 Jul 2008 at 8:33 am13 Caroline

I’ve made some fruit leather with the flavored applesauces in a dehydrator (I tried the oven but it burned). My daughter liked the idea at first, but hasn’t quite adapted to it, she prefers the fruit rollups. I want to try pumpkin rollups, just need to get everything to do it. I’ve thought about using some leftover babyfood too.

I’ve got a friend that dries cranberries (she adds some sugar to them though so they’re not as sour) and grapes (to make her own raisins), but doing those in the sun might take too long.

As for peeling the peaches, when Mom and I canned peaches, we blanched them and then the skins popped right off whole. It would probably work with Plums too.
on 24 Jul 2008 at 8:35 am14 Hev

What a cool project - Might make some for my niece and nephew :)

Have a great day :)
on 24 Jul 2008 at 8:53 am15 brian

I’m interested in trying vegetable leather. First, I’ll start out with string beans and then move on to corn. If that works out, I’ll try cauliflower and potato.

I’ll keep you posted with the results.

-Brian
on 24 Jul 2008 at 1:38 pm16 Marie

Caroline - Great tip about the peaches and blanching them to get the skins right off. I bet it would work for the plums too.

Hev - great project for the kids!

Brian - I dare you to try those! I bet some would be good. I can’t wait to try your cauliflower leather!
on 24 Jul 2008 at 3:49 pm17 Rebecca

At the risk of sounding stupid, I had NO idea you could make your own fruit rollups!
on 25 Jul 2008 at 4:35 pm18 Autumn

I cannot wait to try this. Looks fab! We spend so much on the Clif fruit sticks - which are delish, but homemade is so much better.
on 25 Jul 2008 at 11:50 pm19 Rachel

Oh I am so going to try this. That sounds really easy. My boys would love it!
on 26 Jul 2008 at 12:03 am20 Link Love :: the cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze edition | simple mom

[...] Strawberry Fruit Leather :: Make and Takes [...]
on 27 Jul 2008 at 3:05 am21 Jennifer

Hi- I recently saw an episode of “Good Eats with Alton Brown” where he made beef jerkey. He used Air Conditioner filters as drying racks for the jerkey- one on bottom, one as a cover. I think these would work great for the fruit leather! Just a thought…
on 27 Jul 2008 at 9:35 pm22 vanessa

yeh! I was waiting for this post, I am going to try it again and hopefully this time be sucessful :)
on 28 Jul 2008 at 8:01 am23 Marie

Jennifer - I love Alton Brown! I’m sure those filters would work great. Good idea. Let me know if you try it, how it works!
on 29 Jul 2008 at 2:19 pm24 Nicole

I have a little one and I know they are not supposed to have honey before one year. Have you ever used anything else to act as a binding agent or tried it without the honey?
on 03 Aug 2008 at 9:57 pm25 Peggy

I love to dry fruit and the kids love the project too.

If you are searching for some more meatless (and healthy!) recipes for your family, you may want to take a look at http://www.meatlessmonday.com.

I work with the Meatless Monday Campaign, a nonprofit public health campaign. They have a big collection of meatless recipes on their website that you may want to try!”
on 12 Sep 2008 at 10:12 pm26 Tricia

Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! My mother passed away 7 years ago and this is a recipe that wasn’t recorded. I knew that she used honey and she would lay it out in the sun to dry and roll it up just like you! I was so excited to see what you did!! This is a childhood favorite of mine! Thank you Thank you!