Fruit Leather

If you are lucky enough to have access to all of the peaches and apricots that are ripe now, start picking and make some of this yummy treat that is super portable, loved by kids and adults alike, and a fun way preserve some of that fresh summer flavor.

Summers at our childhood house included lots of fruit canning, but my favorite treat of the summer harvest was fruit leather. If you aren’t familiar with this, think fruit roll-up without all that high fructose corn syrup.

There really isn’t a true recipe because fruit will have different consistency, sweetness and such, but here’s what I did with some apricots.

Wash ‘cots, cut in half to remove pits and put the fruit into your blender. Puree until smooth. Add 1 TBSP honey, 1 TBSP. lemon juice and ½ - 1 TBSP. cinnamon per blender. I like the tartness of apricots, but if you like it sweeter, add more honey, same with the cinnamon. Spray jelly roll pans with cooking spray and pour apricot puree into two large ovals (about 1 ½ c. per oval). Shake tray to smooth out so apricots are less than ¼ inch thick. Bake in oven at 150 for about 6-8 hours. I have a convection oven so I loaded 4 trays in at a time, but if you don’t it will work fine, just take a bit longer. If you’ve got a food dehydrator, this is a good time to pull it out. Once the leather is cooked, no longer sticky to touch (it will still be a titch tacky), pull them out of the oven. Remove the leather from the trays and lay individually on plastic wrap. Roll up like a Tootsie Roll and voila – a yummy, good for you snack. The rolls will keep for a good week or so at room temp, but I put them in a gallon freezer bag and they will store all winter in the freezer.

If you are using peaches, blanch them in hot water and then submerge in cold water to get rid of the skins. Puree, add the honey, lemon and cinnamon and simmer in a large pot on the stove for 5-10 minutes.

I make a ton of this and keep the remainder of the puree in the fridge between batches.