Homemade Fruit Leather Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What fruits can be made into leather? ›

Making fruit leather is a good way to use leftover canned fruit and slightly overripe fresh fruit. The following fruits were rated as “excellent” or “good” by the University of Georgia for preparing fruit leather: apples, apricots, berries, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums and strawberries.

How Long Does Fruit Leather Last? You can easily store fruit leather, rolled up and placed in a large lidded jar or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 1 month. For longer storage (up to 6 months), refrigerate your fruit leather. For even longer storage (up to 1 year), you can freeze your homemade treats.

You'll want to toss in an apple if you are using berries, kiwi or any other fruit that is low in pectin —this naturally occurring starch helps create the signature chewy texture of fruit leather.

As the results show, most fruit leathers have few disadvantages which are mostly on the lack of preservatives to protect the color.

When making fruit leather at home you can control how much sugar is added. For the diabetic fruit leathers without sugar are a healthy choice for snacks or desserts. Individual fruit leathers should contain the amount of fruit allowed for a fruit exchange.

Chances are the fruit leather will not last long enough for storage. If it does, it will keep up to 1 month at room temperature. For storage up to 1 year, place tightly wrapped rolls in the freezer.

Fruit and plant leather is more expensive than animal leather due to the technical effort required, but it is considerably simpler and more environmentally friendly to produce this leather in terms of the number of natural resources used.

Rather than whip up a banana bread, you can actually skip all that and make homemade fruit leather with just 2 ingredients and it takes minute to throw together. No added sugar, no dehydrator needed, all you need is bananas and cocoa powder!

To fill all four of our dehydrator trays we need about 6-8 cups of pureed fruit; depending on your dehydrator this could vary. Line the trays with parchment paper, as sometimes the puree can leak through. We start with the wrap and remove it after a few hours when it has started to dry.

Making fruit leather is like making a smoothie with one extra step. In a blender, you blitz your fruit with lemon juice and any spices or sweeteners and then spread it out on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Pop it in the oven and let it dry for hours.

Why is my fruit leather cracking in the dehydrator? ›

If your fruit leather is brittle and cracking easily, that could be a sign that it's too dry. If you are having trouble peeling the fruit leather from the pan, try moistening it to help prevent it from cracking.

You want your fruit leather to be set (and the middle of the pan will take the longest), but overcooking will result in brittle, candy-like fruit leather (still delicious, but not what we're going for).

A piece of fruit leather is no doubt more nutritious than lots of other snack foods – Twinkies, for instance. But fruit leathers can contain high concentrations of pesticides. That's because the agricultural chemicals are sprayed on the fruit from which they are made.

Italian company Frumat developed the bio-based plant leather made from waste from the region's enormous apple industry, which produces jams, juices and other apple-based products. The material is now largely manufactured and supplied by Italian company Mabel.

The basics of homemade fruit leathers:

Use any kind of fruit (frozen works if defrosted). Puree until very smooth.