Peach leather turned out to be our favorite preserved fruit last year. I say “our,” but I’m ashamed to admit that I mostly ate the delicacy for my solitary breakfasts, so my partner Mark didn’t get to enjoy the dried fruit. Once he finally got a taste of the peach leather, it became clear that I’d better make more this summer so that we could share from now on.
The first step in making any kind of fruit leather is to think about supplies and dehydrator space. Two cups of whole strawberries are going to turn into about a cup and a quarter of fruit puree, which in turn will fill up one medium-sized cookie sheet. Don’t pick more fruit than you have room for, or you’ll just have to gorge on the excess for supper.
Next, check the weather forecast. If you’re relying on sunshine to dehydrate your fruit, you’d better find at least a day and a half of hot, sunny weather. Don’t start your leather on a sunny afternoon if it’s slated to rain the next day, or your fruit will go bad.
If the leather turns gray (like this), starts to smell, or gets moldy, you’ll have to throw it out. To be on the safe side, it’s best to always start fruit leather first thing in the morning.
With those preparations out of the way, it’s very simple to make strawberry leather.
Rinse your fruits, then cut off the tops and turn the strawberries into puree in the food processor.
Measure how much puree you have and add one tablespoon of honey and half a tablespoon of lemon juice per cup — the honey sweetens your fruit and also helps the leather stick together, while the lemon juice preserves color and kills microorganisms.
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Pour about a cup and a quarter of doctored puree into each cookie sheet and tilt the pan until the fruit evenly covers the surface. This will make a paper-thin leather, which is what’s called for with solar dehydrating. The thin layer of fruit will dry in a day or two. Were I running an electric dehydrator, I might use two or even three cups of puree per tray to make a thick leather like you’ll find in the store.
Stack your trays as shown above and you can carry up to five trays at once as you head out to your hot, dry spot. It’s possible to simply dehydrate fruit outside in the sun, but the process will take longer and you’ll have to cover the leather with a screen to keep out bugs while letting water escape. Mark wishes I would let him make me a real solar dehydrator (one of these days!) but in the meantime we’re using a Festiva we keep for parts to dry out fruit leathers.
Any location where the temperature [inside the car] reaches between 100 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit will work; higher temperatures will cook your fruit rather than drying it, reducing nutrients and flavor, while lower temperatures won’t dry the fruit before it goes bad.
If you’re using a ramshackle dehydrator like ours, you’ll want to check on your leather two or three times a day, moving wetter trays into the sunniest spots and removing finished trays. I discovered by accident that if you leave finished trays in the car overnight, just enough moisture will seep back into the leather that it will peel off the tray with ease. Of course, real people use Saran wrap underneath the fruit so that they don’t have to pry it loose, but since I don’t care about appearances, I ditch the disposables.
You can store dried fruit on the shelf for a few weeks, in the fridge for a few months, or just toss it in the freezer like we do. Around half a gallon of strawberries turns into about a cup of fruit leather, so space in the freezer won’t be a problem. The real trouble will be keeping your fingers out of this natural, vitamin-rich candy until the cold season rolls back around.
Wait, clarification please: temperature needs to be 100-140 outside, or temperature in the car needs to be 100-140?
Inside the car!
Thanks! On a 90 degree day, parked in relative shade in a parking lot, the interior of my car gets 114-120 degrees with the windows slightly cracked after about half an hour or so. I know this because I tried science. Or at least a digital thermometer that records the max temperature.
Most cars continue to heat up as the day wears on. In 90 degree heat with the windows rolled up, the car will heat up to about 140 after 90 minutes or so.
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YUM!
That looks like a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
What about if you live in the crazy-humid mid-atlantic states where you practically need gills in the summer? I tried fruit leather last summer and, granted, I may not have done this good of a job (maybe it was too thick or something) but I couldn’t get the stuff to dry out. Advice?
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/dried-fruit-recipe/index.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5912487412723519389
Maybe this is a solution?
I’d be kind of scared to have food in direct contact with air filters like that considering the chemicals in the filter.
Fruit leather specifically would be in a pan/dehydrating tray and not directly on the filter, so there’s no direct contact.
I’d be a little iffy about the beef jerky as well, as the manufacturers don’t seem to be terrifically forthcoming about exactly what’s used on the filters–then again, if you have central air or a furnace, you’re essentially breathing through one right now. I do know that a lot of filters are a cotton/poly blend, so I’m sure there’s a less mysterious alternative out there.
There’s always the old “turn on the oven and leave it on OMG forever” method. Perhaps this is a good solution for a day when you’re going to be outdoors all day, working around the house.
I was going to ask the same thing. NC summers don’t lend themselves well to dehydrating things lol. If I figure out a solution I may have to try ginger peach leather.
My Fiance and I have a food dehydrator (thank you ronco)which we’ve only used for beef jerky. I am totally going to try to make some out of raspberries tonight!!! 🙂
Yum! Let us know how it goes!
looks and sounds yummy! Excellent example of thinking outside the box to get what you need!
It never occurred to me that I could make fruit leather!
I’m quite intrigued!
Does it make the car smell like strawberries?
I have done this a few times with different fruits. I tend to go way overboard at the farmer’s market buying fruit I cannot possible eat in time, so when it starts to go south, I cut it up and cook it down to make fruit leather. I did it in the oven overnight once (super low temp), but prefer the car method because it doesn’t waste any gas/electricity and actually uses an awesome resource that occurs relatively naturally (the hot ass car).
Is there an alternative to the honey for the vegans out there? I’m new to veganism so I’m not really sure what they use in this instances lol
I think agave nectar is a common alternative. Or maple syrup if you like the taste. You may need to use different amounts.
Agave nectar is a perfectly good substitute, and ought to be fairly easy to find. Another option is brown rice nectar. There’s a brand called Suzanne’s that makes a “Just Like Honey” rice nectar that’s amazing.