Homemade Fruit Leather (Strawberry!)

     So, amidst all of this healthy eating my husband and I have been doing, I've definitely tried hunting out some better snacks and some replacements for the not-so-healthy things we all seem to love. We've both completely turned over our diets, and made healthy eating an exercise a new lifestyle for both of us. We love it. The food and discovering new recipes is actually quite exciting, too.

     I came across fruit leather at Target, in their Simply Balanced brand. They have a bunch of flavors, but we purchased the strawberry. It was delicious!! Expensive, but delicious. Then again, what isn't expensive now? It blows my mind, how pricey things get and I'm so glad I've learned how to coupon. Don't go looking for me on TLC anytime soon, but I really do a good job with saving a lot when we can. Anyhow, I decided to tackle Pinterest (which I spend entirely too much time on) and look up a recipe for fruit leather, and see if you could actually make it yourself. What do you know? You can, and it's SUPER easy. I was very, very excited. :)

     I figured for the first time I would keep it simple and just stick to one fruit that my husband and I both like-strawberry. I made a small batch initially just to see how it would turn out, before I went wasting an entire huge thing of fruit on something I would have to just throw away. I used about 15 pretty large strawberries, with the top cut off, and the process is very simple.

     As you can see, I have the strawberries in a single serve blender as I call it. My husband and I love this for making smoothies and our protein shakes. It's so convenient! It was only $30.00 and it came with the bottle along with a travel lid, which is a big plus. You can also buy additional bottles that come with lids for $10. I cut the strawberries small, just to give the blender an easier time. I blended these until they became a nice puree, with NO chunks!! (I preheated the oven to 170 degrees once I started to do all of this, too. If your oven doesn't go that low, 200 is fine, just keep an eye on it while it is cooking!)

     After getting the puree just right, I poured it into a saucepan, and I added 2 Teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and about 1 1/4 Tablespoons of honey, just for some added sweetness. (You can add whatever you like to sweeten it up, regular sugar among other things work!) 

     After adding the lemon juice and honey, I turned the heat to medium-high, and for about 10 minutes, I stirred it often and waited until the mixture thickened to a somewhat jam-like (slightly thinner) consistency.

As it boiled...     

     While it was boiling and in between a couple of stirs, I prepped my pan. I simply took our Pampered Chef bar pan, (which I use for just about everything) and I cut down a piece of parchment paper to fit it. Some people use a Sil-pat mat, but I opt for the parchment paper because I can more easily make the roll-ups. That's all the pan prep you need to do! 

As it was boiling towards the end, and how it should look once it reaches that desired consistency. 

     Once it looks like the picture above, and you can really tell it has thickened up, you can turn off the heat, stir it up a little bit more and move it to the parchment paper. I just poured it directly onto the piece of paper, trying to make the most symmetrical rectangle I could, and made sure I spread it out evenly, not too thick or thin. If you spread it too thin (to the point where you can see through it), you will end up with a very thin brittle, and if it's too thick, it will be cooking forever and just not turn out right. I would say, aim for about 1/8 inch in thickness.

As you can see, it's hard to make all of the edges even, but just try and do your best. I recommend using a rubber spatula to help spread it around.








     I put the bar pan with the mixture on the parchment paper in the oven, and set a timer for about 2.5 hours. It wasn't done at that point, and I would say it was done closer to the 3.5 hour mark. Always keep an eye on it once it reaches around 2.5-3 hours, just to make sure! When it's done, it will FEEL done. It won't be sticky or gummy necessarily, but it will still feel slightly tacky.

The end result!

     It looks amazing when it's done, and it smells even better! I couldn't believe how great this was. I let it cool for quite some time, just because I didn't want to pull it apart when it was still warm and possibly screw it up. After it was cooled completely, I simply took some scissors to it, cut it into strips and rolled them up. I sealed them in a container, and put them in the pantry to be eaten up later! I couldn't keep my husbands hands off of the tray, he wanted to eat all of it! 

     I feel so much better making things like this and actually being aware of what I'm putting into my body. It's not exactly comforting looking at something and not even knowing how to pronounce the things you're consuming, let alone giving to your kid. This can be a cheaper twist of fruit leather and even the good old fruit roll ups. 

    Enjoy!! Let me know if you make it, and let me know what other fruits you have used/suggest.