Fruit Leather

Matt is a huge fan of fruit leather, so I was pretty excited when I found a recipe for making it at home. This is a great use for fruit you can get in bulk - I used apples here. Spending money on berries, kiwi, etc. so that you can intentionally dry out all that great juice doesn't seem cost effective.





The formula is very easy. Peel/core/chop your fruit of choice, and add it to a large pan with half a cup of water for every 4 cups of fruit.





Simmer the fruit and water, covered, for about 15 minutes, or until it's cooked and softened. Mash the fruit up a bit, and taste it. I added just a little bit of sugar (the apples were pretty sweet on their own), a couple shakes of good cinnamon and little bit of lemon juice to make the flavors pop. I did another 15 minutes of cooking as well, just because I'd chopped the fruit unevenly and wanted to make sure it was cooked through.





When you're happy with the seasoning, toss the mush in the blender. Or the food processor. Or a food mill. You basically want to puree the heck out of it, until it's very, very smooth.








Spread some microwave-safe plastic wrap (the more sturdy variety) on a baking sheet, and spread the fruit puree over it evenly.







The directions say 140 degrees for 8-12 hours. The lowest my oven would go is 170, so we set the timer for 9 hours and went to bed.









This is what we found in the morning. The puree had shrunk a little with the drying, and was smooth on top.










After just a couple minutes of cooling, it peeled easily from the plastic wrap.









Matt's first comment was "Did you try this? This is awesome!"

I don't get the whole fruit leather thing, but I don't need to. :)