Homemade Fruit Leather
Ingredients
- 4 cups applesauce or any fruit purée
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice if using homemade fruit purée
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 200ºF. Line a standard sized baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread applesauce evenly on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 6-7 hours. When fruit is tacky to the touch (doesn't pull away and stick to fingers), it is ready to remove from oven for cooling.
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Allow to cool for an hour. When reaches room temperature, use kitchen shears to cut into desired strip size, length or shape.
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Store in an airtight container, in a cool dark location for 5-7 days.
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Alternately may store in freezer for up to 12 months. When ready to eat, allow to come to room temperature and enjoy.
Recipe Notes
Unsweetened Applesauce Store Bought: Use as is in recipe.
Homemade Applesauce: mix in lemon juice called for in recipe to avoid discoloration. Use as directed in recipe.
Canned Fruit: Use any canned fruit from your pantry. Drain excess water, add lemon juice, and purée in blender. Use as directed in recipe.
Frozen Fruit: Add 1/4 cup water to every 1 cup frozen fruit, and add lemon juice as directed in recipe. Purée, and add to recipe as directed.
Fruit Ready to Go Bad: If you have berries, apples, pears, peaches, mangos or other fruit about to go bad, simply peel if necessary, deseed, and purée. Adding just enough water to purée, lemon juice to avoid discoloration, and then use as directed in recipe. If you have apples or pears, you can refer to the blog post to cook them and mash them prior to puréeing similar to cooking and mashing potatoes.
Essentially, you are wanting to purée fruit with minimal water content, no added sugar, and spread onto a baking sheet to dry in oven at low temperature, to achieve fruit leather.