Making Fruit Leather

While we were over at Reid’s Orchard picking up some peaches, we also picked up some early apples. We usually wait for the main harvest to come in, but thought we’d like to see what these tasted like. They weren’t real good for eating – a bit too mealy for us – but they make great apple leather.

Here are my dehydrator trays ready for the leather mixture.

Dehydrator Trays
Dehydrator Trays

To begin I add to the saucepan for each pound of apples (washed, peeled, chopped, and cored) one cup of water or apple cider.

Apples cooking
Cooking Apples

After the apple liquid comes to a boil, I let it simmer for 20 minutes or until the apples are soft. This mixture is then removed from the heat and allowed to cool. When cool I add it to the blender.

Apples in Blender
Apples in Blender

I blend until smooth and then add cinnamon to taste. I use Penzey’s Vietnamese Cassia because it’s my favorite of all of our Penzey’s cinnamons. When I’m happy with the taste, it’s time to pour onto the dehydrator tray. Three cups makes enough to fill up one 14 x 14 inch sheet.

Pouring the apple sauce
Pouring the apple mixture

I then spread the mixture out as even as possible on the trays.

Apple sauce on dehydrator sheet
Sheet ready to be dried

It takes about 15 hours to dry, so I let the dehydrator run overnight. Then the next morning, my apple leather is ready to be cut into fourths and wrapped up.

Apple Leather
Apple Leather

I love to tuck one or two of these wraps in my purse just in case I get hungry when I’m out and about. These are great for kids’ lunch boxes too. And if you don’t want to mess with the fresh apples, just buy ready-made applesauce. Of course, other fruit can be made into rollups and even tomatoes. However, my favorite is apple.

This is my favorite book about dehydrating. If you use your dehydrator and have a favorite drying foods book, I’d love to hear about it.

Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook
Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook

I’m looking forward to making my next batch of apple leathers to stock pile for the winter. These keep for a year or so in the pantry. They keep indefinitely in the freezer or refrigerator. However,  they don’t last that long around here.