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The kids go crazy for this apricot fruit leather. I used to buy fruit roll ups and fruit leather all the time but you won’t even believe how much better this tastes than store-bought!
There are only TWO INGREDIENTS, way less sugar, zero preservatives and 100% real fruit which has great natural fiber. If you have a large crop of stone fruit like apricots, peaches or plums, by golly you had better make this! I don’t usually say by golly but it is fun to say, “by golly!” 😉 The adults love fruit leather as well. It’s a wonderful snack and a great way to preserve a bumper crop of fruit.
Great news!…You can either dry your fruit leather out in the oven or in the sunshine. The sunshine method is my favorite because you can make a whole bunch at once without heating your oven in summer.
Ingredients for Apricot Fruit Leather:
5 lbs ripe sweet apricots
1/2 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
How To Make Apricot Fruit Leather:
1. Rinse apricots, cut in half and discard pits. Place on a large baking sheet cut-side-up and bake at 400˚F for 15 minutes (it’s ok to crowd the fruit snuggly in a smaller pan, just keep them in a single layer). Remove from oven and let cool until just warm enough to handle.
2. Transfer to a blender or food processor and process until a smooth puree (process in 2 or 3 batches if needed).
3. Pour puree into a large mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup sugar, or to taste and stir until sugar is incorporated.
There are 2 ways to dry these out:
1. How to Make Fruit Leather with Sunshine (my favorite way):
Spread puree between 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick on a large parchment sheet or plastic wrap covered baking sheet, extending the paper slightly past the rim. This recipe fills 3 large baking sheets. Set in the sunshine until no longer sticky when you poke the centers. If it sticks to the paper, let it dry longer. It can fully dry out in 1 day if it’s hot out or 2 days if warm and sunny (store indoors uncovered overnight).
Note: if you want to make big batches, you can lay out large strips of parchment paper on a portable surface and just put the puree directly on the paper without needing baking sheets. We literally used 40 lbs of apricots for fruit leather this year.
2. How to Make Fruit Leather in the Oven:
Spread puree on a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and place baking sheets in a preheated oven at 200˚F for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours, depending on how thick you spread it. It’s done when it no longer sticks to your fingers when you poke the center. Note: do not place in the oven while it’s preheating or it can burn.
We slice fruit leather into strips with the backing attached and make fruit roll ups. Store at room temperature in a large ziploc or foodsaver bags.
How to Make Apricot Fruit Leather
Ingredients
- 5 lbs ripe sweet apricots
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
Instructions
How To Make Apricot Fruit Leather:
- Rinse apricots, cut in half and discard pits. Place on a large baking sheet cut-side-up and bake at 400˚F for 15 min (it's ok to crowd the fruit in a smaller pan). Remove from oven and let cool until just warm enough to handle.
- Transfer to blender or food processor in batches and process until a smooth puree.
- Pour puree into a large mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup sugar, or to taste and stir until sugar is incorporated.
How to Dry Fruit Leather with Sunshine (my favorite way):
- Spread puree between 1/8" to 1/4" thick on a large parchment paper or plastic wrap covered baking sheet, extending the paper slightly past the rim. This recipe fills 3 large baking sheets. Set in the sunshine until no longer sticky when you poke the centers. It can fully dry out in 1 day if it's hot out or 2 days if warm and sunny (store indoors uncovered overnight).
How to Make Fruit Leather in the Oven:
- Spread puree on a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and place baking sheets in a preheated oven at 200˚F for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours, depending on how thick you spread it. It's done when it no longer sticks to your fingers when you poke the center. Once at room temp, roll and store at room temperature in large ziploc or foodsaver bags.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
It’s so sweet how much my kids LOVE this apricot fruit leather! I hope you try your hand at this fruit leather. It’s so easy and you can give the kiddos in your life a sweet surprise :).
Huh. I never seen that before. Kinda reminds of me of jerky in a way. Apricot jerky 🙂 Definitely gonna copy and paste this recipe. Precious! what a beautiful little blue eyed baby girl.
Thank you so much 🙂 And yes, it is kind of like a fruit jerky! I hope you love it!
Thanks for the recipe! I have a bunch of frozen apricots. Would I need to bake those as well after defrosting or just defrost and blend? Do you store the fruit leather in the fridge or at room temperature? Your girl is adorable!
Hi Inna, I haven’t tried with frozen apricots but I imagine the initial baking isn’t necessary after defrosting since they will be pretty squishy soft when thawed. We store the fruit leather at room temperature. Thanks Inna 🙂
Your daughter is adorable! I love apricots and when I was a kid, I LOVED fruit snacks (ok, I still sneak some on occasion). I think making them myself is a great idea.
Thank you for the sweet compliment. I agree, I can’t get enough of her cuteness 🙂
Hi, Natasha!
Spasibo for recipe! I think the flies will like it as well as children 🙂 Do you have any protection while it’s outside drying??
BTW,your daughter is so precious 🙂 !!!
Thank you Lena 😀. Flies actually are not attracted to it at all. We don’t cover them with anything. My husband just rescued one bee 🐝.
Hey Natasha. I want to make these and I haveI a ton of frozen strawberries and was wondering if I can use them for this recipe. If yes, once thawed, do I have to cut them in half and then bake them? If so at what temperature and for how long?
Please reply as soon as possible. Thanks in advance😊
Hi Alena, with strawberries you don’t have to pre-bake, just blend them with sugar and strain if you want to get rid of the seeds, or leave them in. I haven’t tried with frozen strawberries but I assume it would work the same way, just thaw before blending.
Thank you. And do I use the same baking technique in the oven as listed above?
Hi Alena, I would not pre-bake strawberries, just add them in “raw”
No I mean once i pour out my puree… Do i use the same method for the oven as listed above to dry them out? I don’t have enough time to lay them out in the sun. Thank you.
Oh I see, yes do the same method to dry them out. Check for doneness at 2 hours and keep an eye on it so you don’t overdry it 🙂
Can u do this with apples?
Hi Alina, I haven’t tried with apples but I think it could work! I’d probably add a little cinnamon to taste.
Hi Natasha –
have a ?
Hi Natasha –
have a ?
do u think I can used honey not sugar?
I wanna try with blackberries and dry them with sunshine, do i have to put them in to the oven first and than puree?
and when i am gonna dry them with sunshine, for first day they will not dry, do i have to leave them out side for a night or do i have to take them in side the house and than next day put them again dry with sunshine?
thanks a lot
Hi, yes that should work fine with honey instead of sugar. We took the fruit leather inside the garage overnight and then brought it back out into the sun the next day. If you’re curious, we also kept it uncovered outside and in the garage and didn’t have any issues with bugs.
I was so excited to try this new recipe – wow candy without chemicals! How can i spead it more evenly though, because aftet 4 hours of drying in the oven some places were still liquidy while other areas were already dry…
Hi Galina, try a large offset spatula (like those used for frosting cakes), or a food scraper, or tap the sheet several times on the counter to even out. I hope that helps!
Wow so much apricots!
I’m so jealous they are one of my favorite fruit but they are expensive where I live 😔
I’ll have to do with peaches, we got plenty of those
I’m looking forward to making more with peaches once they ripen! Do you grow your own peaches?
Hi Natasha, what if i’ll use melon? Do you think it might work?
Hi Olga, I haven’t trying with melon but I do think watermelon is too watery to work properly.
Watermelon IS too watery to yield good leather. I tried it one time. Cantaloupe yields a very strong flavor after drying and I don’t recommend it either.
That picture! She is gorgeous! 🙂 Thanks so much for all your recipes – I don’t always comment, but appreciate your hard work and the beautiful layout of your site.
Thank you for your sweet compliment :). I’m so happy you enjoy my blog 🙂
I’ve never done fruit leather and will give this a try. Your baby girl is so adorable!
Thank you Valya, I hope your kids love it as much as ours do 😁.
When you put it outside to dry, how do you keep flies and wasps and such from sitting on it all the time?
I’ve been keeping an eye on it and they don’t sit on it. We haven’t had an issue with it, but if you are concerned, you can tent some cheesecloth over it, just don’t place it directly on the fruit leather or it will stick.
Omg wow Natasha always wanted to make my own fruit leather rather than buying especially the ones with lots of loaded sugar food coloring and a bunch of other additives and chemicals even the all natural they still put stuff will hafta try would this recipe also work with apples for the fall btw your baby got so big long hair and into food lol thanx for posting darlin a recipe to do for me cheers enjoy the summa while it lasts
Hi Tzivia, I haven’t tried with apples but I think it could work! If using apples, I’d probably add a little cinnamon also.
Can I use canned peaches for this?
Hi Alina, I haven’t tried that so I can’t say for sure. I haven’t seen it done anywhere online either. Sorry I don’t have a concrete answer for you.
A ok
Thanks 🙂
Thats alot of apricots!! Are they from your parents garden? Must be nice have such a surplus of apricots.
Yes they had tons this year!! They have 2 trees that did really really well this year. They also dried a whole bunch of them 🙂
Wow! This sounds easier than I thought to make. Thank you so much for posting this. I will definitely be giving this a try. I do have a question…. Can this recipe be used for peaches/nectarines and other fruits? BTW, your baby girl is SOOO adorable!!!
Aww thank you Olga 🙂 Yes you can use other fruit. I also have a plum fruit leather posted. You can use other stone fruit and even berries :). I’m curious about making it with persimmon if we have extra persimmons this year.
Awwww Beautiful baby girl!!! 🙂 😉
I will give this recipe a try for my 3 year old boy!
Thank you so much Nina :). She grabbed a fruit leather while I was taking pictures of the recipe and was so into it, it was adorable! I couldn’t help but take some pictures of her.
My mom used to make this ALL the time, but she would use a dehydrator instead of an oven or the sunshine.
I think a dehydrator would work well for this. My parents just purchased one yesterday actually but we haven’t had a chance to break it in. Do you line the shelves of the dehydrator with parchment, wax or something else?
I bet the taste is amazing! What is the shelf life?
Hi, I haven’t maxed it out since it gets eaten pretty quickly. This is the first year we’ve made a boat load of it so it would last a little longer. I’ll have to report back when we’ve eaten the last roll :). It should last as long as dried fruit – longer if it’s stored in a food saver bag or airtight container.
Thank you!