Making Fruit Leather

Back with the dehydrator for making fruit leather.

Most dehydrators come with a trays with lots of holes in them to allow a really even airflow.

For fruit leather you need to purchase some sheets that go into the dehydrator, so you can create a layer of solid fruit.

For my dehydrator these sheets, Andrew James Dehydrator Sheets fit perfectly into the Andrew James Dehydrator

This is a lot easier than cutting thin strips.  For this i used Blueberries and Peaches.  Destone about 10 peaches and roughly cut them up.  In a blender, whizz them up until smooth.  I use my Nutribullet 600 to blend the fruit with the 2 blade option.  A good 30 seconds and you’ve got a good consistent paste.

You can add some sweetness to the fruit at this point, with a bit of caster sugar (ugghh!), fruit sugars (better)  or agave nectar (my favourite.)

That’s what i’m calling it anyway.  The peaches were pretty viscous and held shape quite well when poured and manipulated into a sheet.

The Blueberries were amazingly viscous, they even held the shape of the container they were poured from for a while.  they didn’t spread as well, but was good enough for my needs.

I also mixed a little in of each to provide different flavours in the same leather, and for some nice colour contrasts.

I was pretty nervous, that when the heat got involved the mixture would spread out a bit and start running, but this was minimal, and nothing to worry about.

60C and 16 Hours later it’s ready.  I think i made it slightly thicker than i should have, but it seemed to work ok, just take a bit longer to dry.

I swapped the top trays with the bottom a few times over the drying period, as the Andrew James Dehydrator does seem to be a little inconsistent for the uppermost layers.

I’ll admit it doesn’t look all that appetising going in.  The sweetness in the blended mixture was quite good though.

 

Drying, cutting and storing..  i decided to roll them up and cut them into a good few bite snack.

The Kit i used

Nutribullet 600
Andrew James Dehydrator Sheets
Andrew James Dehydrator
A Knife for smoothing

Peaches and Blueberries bought from the greatest market in the UK, Leicester Market.
1Kg of Blueberries and 10 ripe peaches. You may need to adjust slightly for your machine, or fruit.

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I love cooking, making, restoring/upcycling boxes, doing fun stuff with my family, photography, giving myself skills and learning something new everyday.