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This is a How-To for Fruit Leather. I can’t call something with just 2 ingredients a recipe. It’s so easy. Funny enough, this was actually the result of a blunder.
My mom cuts her gazillions of plums in half and dries them in the sun to make prunes. She starts off by baking them on low heat for a short time. That short time turned into a long time, which “ruined” a huge batch of plums. Mom decided to try something new. I know it’s not an original concept but she really did discover how to make fruit leather by mistake. It was a hit, especially with the kiddos! We re-created it again with our own plums.
Update: this year we made apricot fruit leather and it was amazing and we documented the process along with a sunshine drying method here.
Ingredients for Plumb Fruit Leather:
7 lb plums (around 5 quarts bowl)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
How to Make Plum Fruit Leather Rolls:
1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Wash, cut in half and pit the plums.
2. Lay halved plums out on rimmed cookie sheets with cut side up and place in the oven for 20 min. If plums are smaller in size, set a timer for 15 min and check every 5 minutes to avoid burning the plums.
3. After 20 minutes, remove plums from the oven and let them cool.
4. Using blade attachment in the food processor, blend plums until smooth and pour finished mixture into a large bowl.
5. Add 3/4 cup of granulated white sugar to blended plums and stir well. Add more sugar to taste if needed.
6. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper covering the walls of the baking sheet as well. Pour the purée into the lined baking sheets to about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. We filled 3 baking dishes that fit on 2 levels in the oven together.
7. Let dry in the oven for as long as it takes for the purée to dry out and form fruit leather, about 6-8 hours, more or less depending on the thickness of your fruit leather.
There are several ways to dry this out:
(1). If your oven has a low heat setting at 140˚ F: Heat the oven to low 140°F. Place the baking sheets with purée in the oven on the two racks placed as much in the center as possible.
(2) Our oven preheats to 170˚ F so we kept the oven door slightly open by putting a wooden spoon in the door. If you have a convection setting available, use it to speed up the process.
(3) If you don’t want to prop the oven door open and your lowest setting is 170˚ F, preheat to 170˚ F, then turn the oven off and leave the door closed completely and reheat it after an hour; repeat as necessary until it dries out.
(4) My mom let it dry in the sun for 2 days. You may also use a food dehydrator.
Keep in mind, the goal is for the fruit leather to dry out, not cook. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky and has a smooth surface.
8. When the fruit leather is ready, you can use a pizza cutter to cut fruit leather into srips. To store it, roll it in its parchment paper, put it in an airtight container or ziploc bag and store in the refrigerator or freezer.
Have you tried fruit leather with any other fruit?
How to Make Plum Fruit Leather
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Wash, cut in half and pit the plums. Lay halved plums out on rimmed cookie sheets with cut side up and place in the oven for 20 min. Check every 5 minutes to avoid burning the plums.
- After 20 minutes, remove plums from the oven and let them cool. Using blade attachment in the food processor, blend plums until smooth and pour finished mixture into a large bowl.
- Add 3/4 cup sugar to blended plums and stir well. Add more sugar to taste if needed. Than line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper covering the walls of the baking sheet as well. Pour the purée in to about an 1/8" to 1/4" thickness.
- Let dry in the oven for as long as it takes for the purée to dry out and form fruit leather, about 6-8 hours, more or less depending on the thickness of your fruit leather.
There are several ways to dry this out:
- Heat the oven to low 140°F. Place the baking sheets with purée in the oven on the two racks placed as much in the center as possible.
- If the lowest setting on the oven is 170°F, than preheat to 170°. Turn the oven off and leave the door closed completely and reheat it after an hour; repeat as necessary until it dries out. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky and has a smooth surface.
I need this in my life! I love fruit leather and homemade is the best!
It’s also the best if you have some fruit trees. When our tree produces plums, it sure produces! This is a good way to preserve them 🙂
Yum! How would you do this with raspberry’s?
I’ve never had my hands on enough raspberries to try it but I imagine it’s the same process but keep in mind that raspberries would be much more seedy.
How did your mom dry it in the sun? I am actually thinking to do it this way. Do I need to cover it with something? Do I just let it sit in full sun until it’s dry? My son can’t wait for me to make this.
My Mom pits the fruit, then cuts in half and puts them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 to let them get a little steamy. You don’t want them to get too soft or they will get mushy. Time in the oven also depends on how ripe fruit is also. Then transfer them to a rack or a screen or parchment paper (or sometimes my mom uses wall paper ;)), – the key is to use something that is more non-stick so it doesn’t stick to the fruit. Let them dry in the sun completely. It depends on the weather, but it usually takes more than 1 day. After they are dry on top, turn them over. She’s telling me these things over the phone as I type ;).
Thanks for a quick response. I thought that it’s possible to dry puréed plums in the sun to make plum fruit leather. But I guess I can make prunes in the sun and have to use my oven to make plum fruit leather.
You can do that. It will take a little longer than the oven method, but I’ve seen others do it on the internet. 🙂
I have tried using our mangos which are very sweet! How do I stop them sticking or do I have to dry them longer. We have a dehydrator
Many thanks
Sally
I haven’t tried using a dehydrator for this but I imagine that would work well. Yes, if you want them to be less sticky, just try them out a little longer.
I have left-over plum juice from making jelly. Could I use it to make fruit leather?
There really needs to be more substance for making fruit leather. I think juice wouldn’t work unless it was like a pulpy puree.
wow, this is amazing, my kids would love, they are so addicted to sugar, lol, I got it on my plan for next week, love your blog, you are awesome, keep up the awesome work:-))
Thank you Veronika, my son loves it :).
After the fruit is done should you place it on paper and than roll up so it does not stick together??
Yes Barbara, unless you used parchment paper.
Can I do it with apples, we went to apple orchid and got so much gala apples, now I need to make bunch of different things with them! Natasha can u post some good recipes with apples ?
You can totally do it with apples, click here for a link on how to make them. I will be posting caramel apples sometimes soon 🙂
I have made these last week and sure they turned out great! Kids love them and BIG plus – it is all natural! They also shared some at school with other kids. Looks like it became a great hit! Should I start a new business?? 🙂
Ha ha. You definitely should! 🙂 You have full rights to the recipe. 😉
Natasha I have a question.. Can it be made with berries such a blackberries? We don’t have any plum trees, but we do have a ton of blackberries in the garden. Would u still need to dry them out for 20min in the beginning?
I think 10 minutes in the oven for berries would be better or they might get too juicy. Berries should make some mighty fine fruit leather. Let me know what you think.
Hi Natasha,
I just saw your video on facebook on how to separate egg whites from yolks. It was so nice to see you in person for the first time. I love your step by step recipes. However, I think that video are so helpful as well because we can actually watch you as you make the food. Keep up the good work and hope some of the future recipes would be in a video form. You are great Natasha.
Thank you so much. I think this video is just the beginning. People seemed to like the video idea 🙂
my oven has the keep warm option which sets to 145 degrees. we’ll see how that works. I added Truvia natural sweetner and they seem ok and sweet enough. cant wait for them to finish drying so I can eat them! I also saw recipe in other magazines but never tried it yet, yours is much easier.
With 145 F, you don’t have to keep the door slightly open. It will take a little longer, 8-12 hours. My oven starts at 170 F :(.
Wow, so simple and so unique. I didnt know that it only takes 2 ingridients to make fruit leather… I will have to go to our local orchards for some plums and make some for my kids. I am sure it tastes better then store bought ones… !
Great idea! I will do it for sure) Thank you Natasha!
Awesome!!! I been thinking to make fruit roll ups. Thanks Natasha for this wonderful recipe:)
Making this 🙂 So excited for my boys, I wish my mom knew this recipe when we were kids 🙂
It’s so easy, it’s hard to even call it a recipe. I’m so glad my mom messed up her dried plums, or we may not have discovered this for awhile! 😉
I seen those things in magazines or pinterest and never got to them. So for the baking part I think 20 minutes is too much, my overcooked and juice was all over the place. I didnt even check on them, just set on timer. But my were prune plums, smaller in size
I’m sorry that your plums overcooked. I made a note to use less time for smaller plums.
🙂 they are fine, I like feedback so I am sharing it with you 🙂
Thank you; I definitely love to hear feedback too. It makes the recipes better and it makes me a better cook to learn from you all!
Natasha,, I just want to clarify how to dry the fruit.. does the oven need to be on @140 for the 6-8 hours?
Inessa, yes, that is correct, it may take less or more time depending on how thick you make your fruit leather (it will take less time if 1/8″ thick and more time if 1/4″ thick but overall its 6-8 hours. Thanks for asking, I just went ahead and clarified this on the recipe. Just keep checking it every couple hours till it’s done.
Do you know how long these will last? do you refrigerate them after made? Thanks for this…my kids always ask for the multi-colored ones at store…and I really don’t like buying them because of everything that’s in them.
Place your fruit leather in airtight container and keep at least for a month in the fridge or few months in the freezer. Hope this helps 🙂
I’m soooo gonna do this! Thanks!
A great way to treat your kids with some fruit treat 🙂
super,I wiil do it,you are great…can I ask you if we can make in this way any fruits leather?
You should be able to make fruit leather with wide variety of fruits. Sugar amount will be different for other types of fruit, just do taste test 🙂