Preserving: Homemade Fruit Roll Ups ~ A Recipe

When I was a child, back in the days before home computers, cell phones, and Internet (my children don't understand how we survived), I loved me a good fruit roll-up.  You'd take the roll out of it's package and peel that leather off the wax paper.  From there, it was a matter of art and personal expression.  Some would roll the fruit leather back up and eat it like a burrito.  Others would hold it flat like a tortilla and take bites off it.  Me?  I rolled it around my thumb and sucked it clean off.  Wait.  I didn't actually just share my technique to the public, did I?  Don't tell anyone.

Now on to more adult-ish talk.  Did you know some kinds of fruit roll ups don't even have any fruit?  And most of them contain high fructose corn syrup (probably GMO), partially hydrogenated soybean oil ( also probably GMO), artificial colors and flavors, and MSG (listed as "natural flavor")?!  What the what?
"Sign me up for eating every horrid ingredient on the planet disguised as a fruit snack!"
Said no one ever.
Fruit leathers are the simplest things to make and the only ingredient needed is -- get this -- fruit!  You may also add spices like cinnamon if you want to get wild and crazy.

I waited forever to make fruit leathers because I thought I needed official non-stick dehydrator sheets. (NOTE: Although they won't be raw, you can still make these in the oven at 170º.  Check on them after 6 hours.) Then I remembered how I used to peel the leathers off the wax and thought, why not dehydrate them right on the wax paper?  Uh, yeah.  So here's how it works.  I've found that filling the blender with fruit will make enough purée for three sheets on the ol' Excalibur.  Depending on how many trays your dehydrator has, make as many batches that you need to fill that thing up.  If you can purée a fruit, you can leather it.  Here's what we're making today:

Peach Cobbler Fruit Roll Ups
Makes about 15, prep: 10 minutes, dehydrate 6-8 hours

• 2 bananas
• 4 peaches
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel bananas.  Remove peach pits & cut out any bruises.

 

  

Purée all ingredients in a blender.  You'll get the best results in a high speed blender like a Vita-Mix.  You might need to use the agitator to push fruit down to the blades.

Cover 3 dehydrator trays with wax paper (I like to use this unbleached kind).  Pour 1/3 purée over each tray.  Spread it as evenly as possible over the paper so it will dry evenly.  I use my favorite spatula of all history for this job.

  Remember that the leathers will shrink to less than half their current sizes, so spread them to about this thickness (about 1/3 inch, but no need to get too perfectionistic):

Dehydrate at 105º for about 6-8 hours, depending on the thickness of the leather.  Check on them periodically.  If they are dried for too long, they will become chips.  Not long enough will leave them with soggy spots and unsafe to store at room temperature.  Once they are ready, they'll be firm enough to peel off but not at all brittle.

Roll the sheets up, one at a time, in a tight spiral.

Cut them evenly into fourths.  This will make a sizable roll up.

Now roll individual leathers in plastic wrap.  Store in the pantry.  If they are fully dehydrated with no soggy spots, they should be good at room temperature for six months to a year.

Pros:

• I love that the leathers have practically no contact with the toxic-leaching plastic wrap with this method.   
• These are fabulous snacks for on the go and something wonderful to slip into school lunches.  They have been tested on eight picky eaters who love the Trader Joe's fruit leathers and they said they liked these better!
• Many flavors can be made.  Our favorites are blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry.  We like berries.  And all you use are, well, the berries!  In the fall we look forward to apple roll ups.

Con:

• I struggle that there is waste involved.  Ya just can't reuse wax paper and plastic wrap, I'm afraid.  

Cost breakdown:
Because it's easiest to see the pricing using a 2-pound box of blueberries, I'm going to pull this from making two batches of blueberry leathers.  Banana leathers are probably the cheapest to make unless you're using homegrown produce, the next cheapest is fruit, then berries.  Two pounds organic blueberries made 2 batches (30 roll-ups), costing 17 cents each.  The fruit leathers we used to buy at Trader Joe's cost 49 cents.  If you are working with homegrown produce or some given to you, these babies are free outside of the wax paper and plastic wrap!

Do I think it's worth it?  Well, all my children enjoy them, it only takes about ten minutes of my time to blend, spread, cut, and wrap many of them at once, and they are super cheap.  I'm in love!  This is definitely one method of preserving we will continue to use.

Thrilled with the size of this fruit roll up.

I'm sharing this at Monday Mania, Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter.