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Fruit Leathers

This is probably one of the main reasons I invested in an Excalibur 9-Tray Dehydrator. The kids (and all their friends) love these so much, I can’t keep them stocked up. It’s a wonderful treat for lunches, snacks, camping, road-trips or for when fruit isn’t in season. I haven’t found a kid yet would didn’t love these. And on the plus side, they are crazy simple to make and you can pretty much make them out of anything!

Ingredients:

  • About 12 cups of frozen or fresh fruit (**See notes below for tips)

Directions:

IMG_7692If using frozen fruit, leave in a bowl on the counter overnight to thaw. Place all ingredients in blender (may have to do in batches) and blend until smooth.

Line dehydrator trays with Excalibur re-usable sheets (or parchment paper). Put about 1 1/2 cups of the mix onto the tray and spread into a square shape as evenly as possible about 1/8″ thick***.

IMG_7693Place prepared sheets in the dehydrate and dehydrate at 115 degrees F for 8-10 hours. (Dehydrating time will depend on how thick (and how even) they were spread on the sheets). I find it works best to put them in the dehydrator first thing in the morning and then start checking them mid to late afternoon. You want them flexible, but not wet. You should be able to brush your hands over-top and nothing should stick or indent.

When they are ready, remove from dehydrator and rip into pieces. Store in air tight container. Will last for months! Although that’s never happened in our house 🙂 If you do find any pieces that are too soft or still wet, eat those pieces immediately.

Enjoy!!

Tips & Ideas:

** I always have about 1/3 of the fruit either mango or pineapple. It does something to the texture so they feel more like fruit roll-ups for the kids. (I get frozen bags of organic mango from Costco).

The kids favourite combo is mixed berry (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry) and mango.

I’ve attempted to add in banana. My kids didn’t like care for it as much.

As fresh fruits are available locally in your area, I stock up and make what I can with the fresh stuff, and freeze the rest to use at a later date.

*** The instructions given are for an Excalibur dehydrator with 12″ square trays. This recipe should fill 8-9 trays. If you have a different dehydrator you may have to add more or less batter to each tray.