The Dehydrator and Fruit Leather. A Highly Addictive Snack (read at your own risk)

Hello again, my name is Amber, and I'm a Dehydrator junkie. No for real. This is no joke. I've tried to cut back on how many times I make fruit leather - because no matter how healthy, organic, and natural fruit leather is - when you eat 2 lbs of it in one sitting; it's no bueno!

Anyway, like all junkies, I like it when others join me :) So welcome!

What does a dehydrator do? It runs at a low temp (lower than your oven will go) to remove the moisture from your food old-school style (like circa 1700's Native American days) drying out and "processing" food for long term storage. 

My first, and favorite, dehydrated food is Fruit Leather! What is Fruit Leather you ask? Well it's any countless combinations of different fruits, blended up together, poured on a non-stick sheet, and slowly dried out at 135 degrees over ~10-12 hours time. So basically fruit roll ups, but without the additives, chemicals, and "delicious" scientifically manufactured plastic taste.​

VERSUS

I went out and bought my ahhmazing Excalibur Dehydrator and the first thing I made was fruit leather. I probably make it about once a week now and we eat it within 2-3 days.

FRUIT LEATHER INGREDIENTS:
Any fruit you have laying around the house. We buy/eat a ton of fruit in our house. But sometimes I buy too much and if anything looks like it's getting over-ripe or about to spoil I remove any peels or seeds and throw it in the freezer.  So when it's time to start a batch of fruit leather I dig in the freezer and put all my fruit in the blender. This makes me happy, because I'm a miser at heart and food waste kills me.
I've never made the same batch of Fruit Leather twice and I've never had a bad batch. I think it's nearly impossible. Some of my favorite combinations are listed below (and I love adding a lime or two to any of these if you like it a little tart). I also buy the big bags of organic frozen fruits from Costco at a bargain and they're usually in pre-mixed varieties. :

• Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries
• Strawberries, apples, banana,
• Raspberries, cherries, peaches
• Strawberries, kiwi, banana
• Grapes - all by them self - yum! 
• Apples, bananas, raspberries, oranges
• ​Side note: I like to add a little kale to any of the above to give a little nutritious boost. ​
• Side note #2: I like tart and wouldn't add any sweetener, but the family likes it when I add a little local honey or organic (real) maple syrup- You choose if/which you prefer. I'd recommend about 1/4 cup max. It really depends on how much fruit you're blending. I dip my finger and do it by taste. Be careful though - too much honey or syrup can make the fruit leather pretty sticky (vs. slightly sticky normally). 

Honestly this list could be 100's, 1000's deep. I do any and every combination of pretty much every fruit possible. 


FRUIT LEATHER RECIPE:

• Choose fruit. Remove any peels or seeds. Defrost slightly if frozen solid.
• Put together any combination of fruit in your blender. Do in batches if you have a lot of fruit.
• Add ~1/4 cup of honey or maple syrup (amount varies to taste)
• Blend until smooth
• Pour onto BPA-free silicon non-stick sheets being careful not to spill over the sides.
• Place sheets inside your dehydrator. Set temperature to 135 ℉ and let run 8-12 hours. Typically when I take it out at 8 hours it's really pliable, a little stickier, and can be still a little too wet in small patches. At 12+ hours it can start to get a little brittle. Still delicious, but cracks easier. you can't do the fun "roll up" for the kids lunch box if you go too far past 12 hours. 

​A Few Tips:

• Don't forget to remove the seeds from watermelon, or oranges - sometimes I've had some pretty gritty fruit leather (that I still ate...) because I missed the seeds. 
• I didn't know for the longest time. you can't over dehydrate anything. So don't be all stressed about what time you shut the dehydrator off. It could run for 3 days and your dried food would be fine.  That being said - it's not necessary to have a dehydrator with a timer to automatically shut off. 

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Products mentioned in this blog:

• Excalibur Dehydrator
• Non-Stick Dehydrator Sheets