Easy Homemade Fruit Leather (Roll Ups)
Use a dehydrator or the oven to make delicious, chewy, all-natural fruit roll ups! It's easy to make homemade fruit leather with only two or three ingredients: fresh fruit, lemon juice and optional honey or maple syrup - no refined sugar added.
Equipment
- Blender, or food processor
- Food dehydrator (preferred), or oven and baking sheets
- Parchment paper or silicone tray liners
- Air-tight container for storage
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh fruit, chopped (peeled only if needed) The best fruit options include peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, and papaya. Apples, pears, and overripe bananas are also a great addition to enhance flavor and texture, often mixed with more colorful fruit. Avoid watery fruit like watermelon, grapes or citrus unless mixed with thicker fruit.
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice helps preserve the color of the fruit, prevent darkening, and enhance flavor
- 1-3 Tbsp honey, maple syrup or agave syrup (optional) or add 1-2 pitted dates or 1/2 an overripe banana as a natural sweetener
Instructions
Prep
- Gently wash the fruit under cool water, and remove the peel if needed (I like to leave the skin on most fruit)
- Cut and measure out 4 cups of chopped fruit into a blender or food processor, along with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 to 3 tablespoons of optional honey or maple syrup
- Blend the fruit into a smooth puree.
- Line the dehydrator trays or baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Do not use waxed paper or tin foil. (4 cups of fruit puree should fill about two dehydrator trays or one standard baking sheet)
- Use a flat spatula to spread the fruit puree evenly across the lined dehydrator trays or baking sheet, aiming for about 1/8 to 1/4″ thick. Make it just as thick around the edges as in the center, and keep in mind it will get much thinner as it dries and excess moisture evaporates!
Dry
- Dry in a food dehydrator set to 135-140ºF (medium heat) for 6 to 8 hours
- OR dry in the oven on the lowest temperature setting (150-200ºF) for up to 8 hours or longer as needed. If baking multiple sheets, rotate the trays every 2 to 3 hours.
- Drying times can vary so start checking the doneness of your fruit leather after 3 to 4 hours.
- The fruit leather is done once it’s fully dry but still pliable. The surface will appear shiny, and it will feel slightly tacky to the touch but not overly sticky, wet or gooey. The outer edges will dry faster than the center.
Roll and Store
- Once it fully cools, gently peel the fruit leather away from the silicone mats or parchment paper and use a knife, pizza cutter or kitchen scissors to cut the sheet into strips of your desired size.
- Roll up the leather strips into individual rolls.
- You can roll them with a strip of parchment paper to prevent them from sticking together, though I haven’t found that necessary. Instead, I lay pieces of parchment paper between stacks of rolls.
- Store in an airtight container or ziplock bag in a dry, cool, dark location (room temperature is fine) where it should stay for at least 1 month, possibly several months. Refrigeration can help extend the shelf life.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!