As a child I loved fruit roll-ups and my mom sent them in almost all my school lunches. When my children got old enough I planned on buying them fruit roll-ups, but when I read the label of ingredients it saddened me to see all the chemical, colorings, and unhealthy ingredients in them. Recently I pinned a roll-up recipe by The Copycat Cook and I realized I could make my kids fruit roll-ups myself. Sondi had a professional dehydrator, but I only had a cheap AS SEEN ON TV Ronco food dehydrator with five round trays and no temperature control. I had a ton of fresh strawberries that needed to be used so I thought why not give it a try.
What you will need:
- Six cups of strawberries
- 2 Tablespoon of Honey
- Parchment or cooking paper
- Dehydrator or use your oven
The best part about these fruit roll-ups is they only have a couple of ingredients fresh strawberries and honey, instead of cinnamon like the pinned recipe. I pureed the strawberries in my blender and added in the honey. I used parchment paper to line my round trays so the pureed strawberries would not leak into the heating coil of my dehydrator. I poured my pureed strawberry deep enough I could put a finger tip in and have part of my nail disappear. I turned on my dehydrator and put the lid on and left it alone rotating the trays every eight hours. It took all five of my trays about a day to a day and a half to become leather. The leather pictured is only from two trays and it tastes so yummy. It is not like the fruit roll-ups I grew up on, but at least my kids can have the experience in a healthy and clean way.
If you own a professional dehydrator with a temperature control Sondi suggested you put your temperature at 105 degrees F for 8-10 hours. If you do this in an oven on a cookie sheet she estimated it might take at least six hours at the lowest heat setting. One tip I learned is not to use wax paper only the parchment cooking paper or your fruit leather will stick and be ruined to the wax paper. Once your roll-ups are done store them in a container in your refrigerator they should last about two weeks.
I plan to make more homemade strawberry fruit leather in the future with different types of fruits and see how they turn out, but for now I am thankful I can make “clean” fruit leather for my children.
XOXO,
Amee
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