I have been in mega preserving mode this week, staying busy dehydrating veggie chips, fermenting sauerkraut, shelling and freezing sweet peas, and most recently, baking fruit leather. Last week in my CSA I received another two pints of marionberries (hooray!). I still have lots of frozen strawberries from prior weeks, and when fishing through the bottom of my chest freezer discovered a bag of last year’s blueberries. So yesterday I went went all out, testing three new seasonal and exciting fruit leather flavors.
And here they are from left to right: Marionberry Lavender (remember my Marionberry Lavender Pie? I couldn’t get enough of this flavor combination), Strawberry Balsamic, and Blueberry Lemonade.
And here’s what I did:
Marionberry Lavender
4 cups fresh or thawed marionberries
1-2 tsp fresh lavender
2 tbsp sugar
Strawberry Balsamic
4 cups fresh or thawed strawberries
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
Blueberry Lemonade
4 cups fresh or thawed blueberries
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp sugar
*These recipes are very flexible and can/should be altered to taste.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Place all three ingredients in a small pot over medium heat stirring often until sugar has dissolved and fruit is slightly thickened. Transfer into a food processor and blend together until the mixture is smooth. Pour mixture onto the baking sheet and using an offset spatula spread out as evenly as possible. Place in oven for 3-5 hours.
*Each of these recipes bake for different lengths. Bake until leather is sticky to the touch, but does not pull off onto your finger.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. The leather will continue to harden until completely cool. Peel away from silicone mat and slice into desired pieces.
Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
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Amazing! Cannot wait to try!
Could you use strawberries and lemonade?
Darcy, I see no reason why you couldn’t use that combo. From what I can tell, you can let your imagination run kind of wild with this recipe and use what ever flavors come to mind.
totally! do anything you want. mixing up the liquid ratio a little won’t make much difference other than affecting the baking time.
How long is shelf life would u say? And could u freeze these?
With proper storage, it should last up to one month. You can keep it up to about a year in the freezer (tightly wrapped in plastic wrap).
Soooo i did something wrong. I used agave instead of sugar an bipassed the heating of blueberries because i figured it was only to dissolve the sugar….well its super thick an airy….so can this be done with agave or was it the not heating it that messed it up?
yeah, the heating was to dissolve the sugar. I am surprised it didn’t work with agave. It’s possible that it was in the food processor too long and air was whipped into it. but you should bake it and see what happens.
So delicious – used raspberries and balsamic vinegar and it was wonderful, so flavorful. Also made the blueberry lemonade version and that was also very tasty. Thanks for the recipe.
I use to use a very simple and quick technique!! Just pour pre-made unsweetened cinnamon applesauce onto a lined jelly role pan. And bake as above.
Amazing idea! This is what I live for– finding new recipes for homemade items that are quick, easy, painless and tasty! I cannot wait to try all the above recipes and also experiment!
Question, can I use wax paper instead of parchment paper? Also, you just pour onto baking sheet (with paper on it), wait to cool then cut to desired width/height correct? I am not a baker (but I’m dangerous with a crock pot) so having little experience with these sorts of recipes. Looking forward to getting a few more recipes like this under my belt on my way to “novice” status.
I’m glad you found the recipe! wax paper should work just fine. Just pour the mixture onto the baking sheet, bake at 200 for several hours (until sticky but not wet), remove from oven and let cool.
let me know if you have any more questions! good luck.
Ok I’m really confused, I am making this right now, was I suppose to mash blend, etc the fruit? Saying bring to a boil but there is very little liquid to bring to a boil at the moment lol
You just want the sugar to dissolve and some of the juices will be extracted. The juices should simmer but really you should just be looking for sugar to dissolve. I will clarify this in my post.
I am so excited to try this! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Those are some amazing combinations! thanks for an oven recipe!
These sound so good. And easy. Just wondering about what kind of lavender can be used? Also, is it just the flower part? Thank you.
Yes, the purple flower part, crushed to release flavor and aroma.
Wow, can this really be so easy?? This looks just like what you can buy in the store! What a great way to use summer fruit!
Follow up, I simmered the blueberries for awhile until there was hardly any left. Then baked as described, it turned out good!!! Thanks so much can’t wait to do strawberries tomorrow!
I was just thinking about this the other day. and thought I don’t have a dehydrator so I won’t be able to make it. But I saw this recipe the next day.
So I am having a go now.
My blueberry lemonade leather is sitting happily in the oven.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
ve been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thx again
I love making my own fruit leather! These recipes are so creative too–usually when I do it, it’s just… fruit.
Do you think I can make watermelon flavored fruit leather or will that be too watery?
It might by too watery, but you could try processing it then straining it with a cheesecloth overnight. It definitely would taste delicious if it worked!
I love fruit leather! I haven’t had it in years
Just saw this recipe and it looks really yummy – would be a great snack for my kids. Just wondering if this would work if I made it without sugar (really trying to stay away from sugar) or possibly would it work with xylitol if it really does need the sugar? Thanks.
It should be fine without the sugar, but in that case I would stick to sweeter fruits (rather than tart ones). If you want to cut the tartness you could use xylitol but I don’t think you would need to. Good Luck!
Can i use banana instead of sugar? or something natural?
You could certainly try banana. Having never tried it, I can say for sure how it would turn out. The other option would be to use a sweet, very ripe fruit (like very ripe strawberries) and omit the sugar all together.
I found this last night and got so excited! I made a strawberry banana one. And though still delicious, it is definitely far from sticky and chewy. The edges almost got crispy by the time the middle was done (obviously it wasn’t perfectly even). I’m not sure what I did wrong! I’ll have to try again…
WOW ! Amazing , my mom used to buy these a the health food store when i was little …. i cant believe we can make these