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Strawberr-Wee Fruit Leather

June 21, 2010

If you follow weelicious on Twitter or Facebook, you may have read about my recent fruit leather obsession. My kids love fruit roll-ups and while there are some great brands out there made with just fruit, I know can save a ton of dough making it myself. While I haven't spent a lot of money trying to figure it out, I have spent a lot of time! As of today, I've made 15 (yes, fifteen!!!!) batches of strawberry leather in an effort to perfect the recipe. It's been a frustrating challenge to say the least, especially when making fruit leather seems so easy in principal. It's just fruit and heat, right? Yes and no.

Here's a breakdown of my results:

Batches 1-4: I used juicy strawberries from the farmer's market, baked them for three hours and the batch turned out perfect and chewy with a deep red color. I couldn't believe how easy it was and was very busy congratulating myself afterwards. Kenya actually found one of the batches that I hid in the closet to save for his school lunch and ate the entire thing! At least I know he got his vitamin C for the day -- I mean, week!

Batches 5-8: So much for being proud of myself. These attempts were total disasters. This time I used organic strawberries from the grocery that were much bigger and less juicy than the ones I bought from the farmer's market. Sadly, each of these batches burned when I cooked them at different times right around three hours. I was left totally frustrated.

Batches 9-12: Back to perfection using berries from the farmer's market. I kept the cooking time at three hours for each batch and I finally realized the juicier the berries, the longer they take to cook. You really have to judge the berry you are using before setting your cooking time.

Batches 13 & 14: Back to the organic grocery store berries, but this time I wised up and only baked them for only two hours, which produced one batch that burned a bit on the edges (because I didn't spread it out totally even) but another turning out perfect.

Knowing that people will have varying results, I asked friends and a bunch of weelicious readers to give the recipe a try. Everyone's outcomes were slightly different. Here's what I've determined: you have to experiment for yourself with this recipe. Everyone's berries and ovens are different, so there isn't one definitive cooking time. My best advice is to spread the mixture as evenly as possible on the baking sheet and keep a close eye on the fruit while it's cooking. Be prepared for a bit a trial and error and don't lose your cool. Hopefully when you find your ideal cooking time, you'll be knocking out batches of your own fruit leather with ease.

Strawberr-Wee Fruit Leather  (Makes 8 Long Strips)

  • Prep Time:2 minutes,
  • Cook Time: 3 hours,
  • Total Time: 3 hours,

Ingredients

  • 3 cups strawberries
  • 1 tablespoon honey

Preparation

  1. 1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
  2. 2. Remove the stems from the strawberries and rinse.
  3. 3. Place the strawberries and honey in a blender and puree until smooth.
  4. 4. Pour the mixture on to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and spread with the back of a spoon or spatula in a large rectangle (my rectangle was 11 x 15 inches) making sure that the mixture is completely even.
  5. 5. Bake for 2-3 hours (or until it’s dry and not sticky to the touch). Remember, cooking times will vary depending on how thick you spread your mixture and how much water (juice) is naturally in the fruit. *Every oven is different, so the cooking time maybe less then 2 hours if your oven tends to be hot.
  6. 6. Allow to sit and cool at room temperature. It takes several hours for the fruit to soften up (when you first take the leather out of the oven the edges will be a bit dry and crispy, but if you allow it to sit overnight it softens up nicely).
  7. 7. Cut with a knife or pizza cutter into strips or use scissors, keeping the paper on, and then roll the leather into “roll ups”.
  8. 8. Serve.

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Comments






  1. Donna

    January 14, 2013 at 10:05 am

    Is this oven temp in degrees F or C?

    • catherine

      January 14, 2013 at 11:08 am

      Fahrenheit!

  2. Erica

    January 8, 2013 at 10:22 pm

    Do you think I can take frozen strawberries (that I froze fresh last summer) out and thaw them and use for this? I am just worried that they will be too juicy?

    • catherine

      January 9, 2013 at 11:42 am

      I think they might be too juicy.

  3. ctgirl

    January 3, 2013 at 12:30 am

    I love these fruit leather recipes. Could u please make more of them?

  4. Hannah

    November 4, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    so excited to try some of these for my uber-picker 4 1/2 year old!

  5. Betsy

    October 23, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    I have a batch of this in the oven now. I added fresh guava to the strawberries! The liquid was delicious!! Can’t wait to see how it turns out. My entire apartment smells divine!

    Question: Does this need to be stored in the refrigerator?

    Thanks!

    • catherine

      October 23, 2012 at 4:31 pm

      Nope, I store it on the countertop!

  6. Hannah

    October 22, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    I love this. I’m trying it now :) Can’t wait to eat some. I’m going to be pinning lots of your recipes. Thanks.

  7. Jen

    September 20, 2012 at 4:00 pm

    Oh no, Epic fail on my first attempt. I used thawed frozen strawberries and a couple fresh ones, and the whole thing burned to a crisp within 1.5 hrs. The kitchen smelled so good too!

  8. Lori

    September 12, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    So happy to find this recipe and you make it so simple and easy to do! I have never made my own fruit leather before but I am happy that I can do that now. Just think of all the chemicals you won’t be putting in your body by making your own!

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  11. Mo

    July 26, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    I have been struggling to get apricot leather to work in my dehydrator. (I pureed apricots, honey, dates and water) I had no problem with raspberry, it was perfect, but the apricot sticks to the parchment paper each time. Any ideas?

  12. Ruth

    July 23, 2012 at 7:49 am

    Made one batch using parchment paper and one batch on silpat. The silpat worked PERFECTLY. The parchment permamently stuck and only after dampening the paper was I able to scrape any fruit off. Read somewhere else that leathers work best on silpat or plastic wrap (it won’t melt at low temps), but for parchment, the paper needs to be well oiled first.

    • Ruth

      September 6, 2012 at 9:47 am

      So I’ve now made this recipe 3 times, have finally figured out how to make a perfect batch with my oven, and my 5-yr old tells me “I only like them a little, don’t make them anymore!” Turns out he doesn’t care for the bumpy bits (strawberry seeds). Grrr… back to the drawing board to figure out how to either strain out the seeds or what other berries to use (I include applesauce in my version).

  13. Sara

    July 3, 2012 at 1:06 am

    I’m on my fifth batch & you are right – they all turn out a bit differently. I’m wondering though, if I should take it out of the oven when it is not “wet” or sticky even if I can still feel liquid underneath the top layer? Will it harden up out of the oven? There seem to be big pockets of “wetness” underneath the top layer.

    • catherine

      July 3, 2012 at 10:02 am

      If it is still liquid or mushy underneath the top layer then it isn’t finished yet! Also try spreading it more evenly. Isn’t experimenting fun?!

  14. catherine

    June 18, 2012 at 10:02 am

    Oh No! Fruit leather can be a little tricky, and it takes some getting used to. Did you make them in the oven or the dehydrator? How long did you let it cook? How thick was your layer of puree? It should be fairly thin, but not see-through.

  15. Rebecca

    June 17, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    Well, my first try resulted in a batch burned around the edge, about 4 inches, and the center still almost liquid under the surface skin. Don’t think I’ll try this again…can’t afford to waste money on berries that end up going to waste.

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  17. kristap

    February 27, 2012 at 10:52 am

    i cant wait to try this was thinking tho what about if you used cookie cutters on it rather then just strips?

    • catherine

      February 27, 2012 at 12:25 pm

      That would be so cute!

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  21. SaraJacobs

    November 22, 2011 at 12:40 am

    i just tried making the leather fruit with 2 big boxes of strawberries and the fruit is now crispy and stuck to the paper. So bummed. I am pretty sure it was parchment paper…
    oh, i cooked it for 3-4 hours because it was sticky in the middle but dry on the edges. argh!

  22. Andrea

    October 6, 2011 at 10:25 am

    Have these in the oven now… been in just under 2 hours and they’re getting the “black spots” of burn as people above posted about. I used sprayed parchment. I’ll try again and use the plastic cling wrap I think. My fruit mixture is apples, frozen strawberries, a little honey.

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  24. Melissa

    August 15, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    Okay, tried this yesterday. I got it all set up, put it in our old wedgewood oven for about 45 minutes before we decided we wanted to go to the farmer’s market (again) So I turned the oven off, figured I’d turn it back on and do the rest of the drying later. When I came home about 2 hours later, it was dryer than when we left. I decided to just let it sit in my oven overnight and it was totally dry before I went to bed! This morning it is perfect and ready to roll. I’m going to try it next time just sitting in the oven without baking at all. Fair warning, my oven is old and the pilot light keeps the small oven portion warmer than modern ovens do!

  25. Pam

    August 11, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    I think that I left them in too long. As it is crispy:( I want to try it again, but do not want to waste anymore strawberries.