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Much healthier (and tastier) than store-bought, this homemade fruit leather is easy to make using your favorite fruit with just 2 ingredients.
Strawberry Fruit Leather
I first published this fruit leather recipe in my cookbook, The Best Kid's Lunches on the Planet, back in 2013 - and it's been a reader favorite ever since.
It's one of the easiest, most fun snacks to make at home.
Ingredients
To show you how to make it, I used strawberries in the recipe, but you can use any fruit in the same quantity. Adding a little lemon juice to the mixture keeps the color nice and bright.
- Fruit: wash, peel, and dice any fruit. Blueberries, mango, raspberries, peaches, apples, all work great.
- Honey: a little to sweeten. You can use granulated sugar, too, but it doesn’t blend as well. The sweetener can be omitted.
Fruit Leather with Frozen Fruit
You’ll need to thaw the frozen fruit first, discard any excess liquid, and then blend it to a smooth consistency.
How to Make Fruit Leather
- Prep
Set the oven to the lowest temperature available, with 200F being the highest. The oven rack should be positioned in the middle of the oven, and the baking sheet should be lined with parchment paper. Wax paper will burn. - Blend
Wash, chop, and prep your fruit. Blend it until smooth. Spread it evenly on the parchment paper, ensuring the middle isn’t thicker than the ends, as this takes the longest to dry. - Bake
Bake it for about 4 hours (at 200F) until the middle no longer looks dark and wet and the sides begin to lift away. - Cool & Store
Allow the fruit leather sheet to cool completely for 4 hours on the baking sheet, or overnight. Cut it into strips using scissors, roll them up, and store in an airtight container for up to a week.
First time making fruit leather? Watch how easy this recipe comes together in this video:
Other Fruit Variations
Follow this recipe and swap the strawberries for blueberries, peaches, apples, pineapple, mango, pears, or raspberries.
Easy Fruit Leather Recipe
Watch How It’s Made:
Ingredients
- 4 cups diced strawberries, any fruit
- 2 tablespoons honey, or sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice, optional
Instructions
Prep the oven:
- Preheat oven to the lowest setting, between 150F to 200F, with the top oven rack in the middle position. If making more than one tray, place the second oven rack right below the first. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Do not use wax paper.
Blend:
- Add the berries and honey into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the lemon juice to keep the fruit leather bright in color; it's not essential to the recipe, just for looks. To remove the berry seeds, pour through a sieve.
- Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and, with the back of a silicone spatula, spread the berry mixture into a thin, even layer. The middle tends to be thicker than the sides, spread this out to just as thin since the middle is the last thing to dry out.
Bake:
- Bake for 4 to 6 hours, until the fruit leather peels away easily from the parchment and the middle is no longer wet. If baking multiple baking sheets, swap positions after 2 to 3 hours. Remove the tray from the oven onto the counter to fully cool down for 4 hours or overnight.
Roll them up:
- With scissors, cut the parchment paper from one end to the other, into strips. Roll them up, parchment and all.
- To eat, separate the fruit leather from the parchment as you go.
Storage:
- Store the fruit leather rolled up in a zip bag or an airtight container in the fridge or pantry for up to 1 month.
Notes
- Oven temperatures will vary. Start checking the fruit leather after 3 to 4 hours. If you leave it in too long it will crisp up.
Emily says
How long is this fruit leather good for? Should it be stored in the fridge or pantry?
Laura Fuentes says
In the pantry, in a zip bag, about 3 days.