Homemade Fruit Roll Ups: Strawberry Fruit Leather
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Ditch the high fructose corn syrup and unnecessary food dyes and make these addictive homemade fruit roll ups. This healthy snack is easy to make with fresh fruit that is in season and most of your time is spent waiting on the drying process. There is little active effort on your part unless you choose to sit and stare at the dehydrator. A recipe with 2 simple ingredients transforms into the most addictive perfect snack especially when you need a sweet treat! Who could complain?! Definitely not my kids when their love language is dehydrated fruit. Fruit leather is the perfect way to use up fruit that may be turning way too quickly or that you bought in bulk and need to preserve or is cranking out of your garden faster than you can eat them. Homemade strawberry fruit leather is ALWAYS the answer!
Equipment You May Want:
- Dehydrator
- Dehydrator Trays
- Silicone fruit leather mats with a lip
- Immersion blender
- Stock pot
- Mason jar
- Mason Jar vacuum sealer
Ingredients:
- 1 pound fresh strawberries
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon sugar, honey, or maple syrup (optional)
Let’s make some delicious fruit leather!
Step 1: Prep Strawberries
Wash strawberries with cool water and remove hulls. Add to a stock pot along with lemon juice and little bit of sugar. The lemon juice helps the strawberries maintain their color and not turn an unsightly brown color after drying. If strawberries are sweet alone, skip the added sugar if that’s your personal preference. Just don’t add too much because excess sugar affects the drying and quality of the fruit leather. You can also substitute a touch of honey or maple syrup in place of the sugar.
Place stock pot over medium heat and heat strawberries while stirring until they are softened.
Remove pot from heat and blend with an immersion blender into a smooth liquid puree. You can also use a blender or a food processor; it’s really whatever you have on hand.
Step 2: Fill Dehydrator
Using a food dehydrator tray lined with a silicone mat with a lip made for fruit leather, add enough puree to cover mat in an even layer. This recipe fills two trays of my Magic Mill dehydrator. Be sure and spread the strawberry puree out evenly and not too thin or the leather won’t turn out right.
If you don’t have silicone tray liners, a piece of parchment paper is perfectly acceptable to use. DO NOT confuse this with wax paper. You want PARCHMENT PAPER.
Place trays in dehydrator and dry at 135 degrees F for about 4-6 hours, testing the fruit leather after 2 hours to see if you can pull it off the mat. If you can, flip the leather sheet and let it dry another hour or two. If you forget to flip it, like I frequently do, no harm, no foul, it just takes a little longer to dry.
If you are using an oven, spread the fruit puree onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and place oven on the lowest temperature possible and prop the door open with a wooden spoon to allow the steam to escape. Be careful to do this around pets and kiddos; we don’t want someone to get burnt.
Step 3: Storage
The fruit leather is dry when there is no presence of excess moisture but the dried fruit leather is pliable. Make sure and touch the very center of the leather to test for dryness.
Once dry, pull the leather off the tray, roll up tightly, and slice into about 5 pieces of long strips with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. If you used parchment, you can roll the parchment paper up right with the fruit leather and cut it into pieces and store it that way just like a store bought fruit roll up!
Place the rolls into a wide mouth quart mason jar. I vacuum seal the lid on and the leather keeps on the shelf at room temperature for weeks, although it rarely lasts 2 days in this household. You can also use any airtight container you have on hand.
Feel free to try out different flavors and different fruit for your own fruit leather creations. They all follow kinda the same recipe and for what it’s worth, you don’t really even need a recipe. Just go by taste, make sure it’s thick, and sweeten it a little bit if you want.
You can also check out my other fruit leather/homemade fruit roll-up and dehydrator recipes here for great snacks with natural ingredients!
Equipment
- stock pot
- Mason Jar with Lid
Ingredients
- 1 pound strawberries hulls removed
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
- 1 Tbs sugar optional
Instructions
- Wash strawberries under cool water and place in a stock pot with lemon juice and sugar. Heat over medium heat until strawberries have softened, stirring frequently.
- Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
- Layer puree onto silicone mat liners with a lip in an even layer.
- Dry in a dehydrator at 135F for about 4 hours or til the center is just set and there is no evidence of excess moisture.
- To use an oven, place oven on the lowest setting and prop the door open with a wooden spoon so steam can escape. Check after an hour or two depending on heat of the oven.
- Once dry, cut into rolls. I do 5 rolls per sheet. Place rolls in a mason jar and vacuum seal and they will store well for a while.
