Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Make your fruit leather with these easy recipes. Enjoy homemade fruit strips made from natural fruit, blueberry rhubarb, and apple cinnamon.

Three Fruit Leather Recipes For Your Dehydrator

Fruit leather may also be called fruit rollups or natural fruit leather or dried fruit pulp.

If I was offered fresh fruit or fruit leather I’d opt for the fresh fruit but it’s nice to have healthy snacks available rather than cakes, cookies and chocolate bars.

Not only is fruit leather healthy for you but deydrating it allows you to preserve it for months up to a year.

• Blueberry Rhubarb and Pear Fruit Leather
• Apple Cinnamon Fruit Leather
• Pear, Apple, and Raisin Fruit Leather
• Crab apple Fruit Leather – Next on my list this season, when the crab apples are ready to harvest from our tree.

Finding Cheap Fruit To Dehydrate

Since getting into the home dehydrator phenomena, I’ve noticed that fruit can be costly.

To overcome the high fruit prices, try to buy your favorites when they are in season.

Related: List of Fall Fruits and Vegetables In Ontario

Another fantastic way to score cheap fruit is through the Flashfood app.

If you’re unfamiliar with it and live in Canada or the USA, the app offers up to 75% off near-expiry food products, including produce.

Recently, I purchased 3 lb of pears for $2.00 and two 4lb bags of apples for $4.00 each.

I was able to incorporate these deals into my fruit leather recipes to reduce costs.

Frozen fruit is another delicious option; you can often find it on sale, even off-season.

Connect with friends who may have fruit trees or bushes on their property and are happy to give away any extras.

Look in local Facebook groups or marketplaces for people in your area who are selling fruit for cheap.

Lastly, if you’re making fruit leather recipes during the summer, check farmers’ markets and farms or grow your own.

Our garden has a mulberry, crab apple, and serviceberry tree that grows in abundance each season.

We are also fortunate to have a 25-year-old rhubarb plant in our community garden that is always generous to us.

Free raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries in our community garden grow along one border.

How To Save Money Buying Fruit

• Purchase sale or in-season fruits
• Use the FlashFood App to find deeply discounted fruit prices.
• Farmers markets or farms
• Frozen fruit
• Grow fruit trees and bushes
• Join a community garden
• Stock up on reward points days.
• Ask friends or family for extra fruits.
• Search online Facebook marketplace or groups.

Related: How To Save Money On Fresh Produce

Fruit Leather Recipes For Beginners

Although I don’t find creating fruit leather recipes complicated any longer with experience, some of you may be new to dehydration.

I’m not a dehydrator pro, but I can make some delicious fruit leather recipes that don’t last long at the CBB house.

How To Prepare Compote For Fruit Leather Recipes

Below are three recent fruit leather recipes that I created and made in our Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator.

You can use little to no sugar for each fruit compote, although the rhubarb is a bit tangy.

I used sugar-free Sukrin Gold, a brown sugar substitute, or local honey to sweeten the fruit leather recipes.

If you prefer to make sugar-free fruit leather recipes you can do that as well however, keep in mind any tart fruits that you use.

A sugar-free option may be ideal for someone who is diabetic or watching their sugar intake.

Blueberry Rhubarb Pear Fruit Leather

• Wash, peel, and chop 1 pear
• Clean 4 stalks of fresh rhubarb and chop into small pieces
• Add 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/4 cup of cold water
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2-3 Tbsp pure honey (use any sugar you like and adjust to preference)
• Stir the mixture and cook on medium-high heat until the fruit is tender.
• Blend the fruit inside the pot while hot with a hand blender or stand blender until smooth.
• Line a dehydrator tray with parchment paper.
• Pour the fruit mixture onto the parchment paper, and using a frosting spatula or knife, smooth the fruit mixture out thin, but keep the border a bit thicker as it will dehydrate first.
• Put the dehydrator on for 10 hours at 140 degrees and let the magic begin.
• Once done, remove the tray from the dehydrator and lift a corner of the fruit leather to remove it from the parchment paper.
• Roll the fruit leather tightly and slice or cut into strips.
• Store the fruit leather in an air-tight bag, jar, or bowl, and enjoy.

Apple Cinnamon Fruit Leather

• Wash and peel 8 apples and cut into small chunks.
• Add 1/4 cup of cold water.
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp pure honey (use any sugar you like and adjust to preference)
• Stir the mixture and cook on medium-high heat until the fruit is tender.
• Blend the fruit inside the pot while hot with a hand blender or stand blender until smooth.
• Line a dehydrator tray with parchment paper.
• Pour the fruit mixture onto the parchment paper, and using a frosting spatula or knife, smooth the fruit mixture out thin, but keep the border a bit thicker as it will dehydrate first.
• Put the dehydrator on for 10 hours at 140 degrees and let the magic begin.
• Once done, remove the tray from the dehydrator and lift a corner of the fruit leather to remove it from the parchment paper.
• Roll the fruit leather tightly and slice or cut into strips.
• Store the fruit leather in an air-tight bag, jar, or bowl, and enjoy.

How To Roll And Cut Fruit Leather

To roll and cut fruit leather, I used scissors to cut strips and then rolled each one.

However, it’s easier to roll the entire fruit leather tightly and then cut rolls.

You can make the rolls any size you like by cutting them into snack-size pieces.

Another option is to cut the fruit leather into strips for snacks, especially if you want to make it thicker.

Pear, Apple, Raisin Fruit Leather

• Wash, peel, and chop 6 apples and 6 pears.
• In a medium pot, add the chopped apples and pears.
• Add 1/2 cup of raisins (optional)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup of cold water
• Stir the mixture and cook on medium-high heat until the fruit is tender.
• Blend the fruit inside the pot while hot with a hand blender or stand blender until smooth.
• Line a dehydrator tray with parchment paper.
• Pour the fruit mixture onto the parchment paper, and using a frosting spatula or knife, smooth the fruit mixture out thin, but keep the border a bit thicker as it will dehydrate first.
• Put the dehydrator on for 10 hours at 140 degrees and let the magic begin.
• Once done, remove the tray from the dehydrator and lift a corner of the fruit leather to remove it from the parchment paper.
• Roll the fruit leather tightly and slice or cut into strips.
• Store the fruit leather in an air-tight bag, jar, or bowl, and enjoy.

Storing Fruit Leather

Fruit leather recipes can be stored in an air-tight jar, freezer bag, or container in a cool, dark place on the counter or in a cupboard.

How long will fruit leather last?

• One month on the counter
• Six months in the refrigerator
• One year in the deep freezer

How To Dehydrate To Make Fruit Leather Recipes

On my first try making fruit leather, I made a few mistakes.

• Spread the fruit compote too thin.
• Dehydrated for too long.
• Failed to use parchment paper.

Spreading the fruit compote too thin makes it brittle and breaks like candy.

If you dehydrate the fruit leather recipes for too long, they become too dry and hard to roll.

Not using parchment paper on the rack made removing the fruit leather difficult and unnecessary clean-up difficult.

Making Thick Fruit Leather Recipes

To make a thick fruit leather, smooth the mixture evenly into a square.

To start, I would add one hour to the dehydration time, open the doors, and see if the fruit leather has the desired texture.

If not, add an hour until it meets your expectations.

It’s more about experimenting to find what works for you the best.

Blend Fruit Mixture Until Smooth

Another essential tip for smooth fruit leather is to blend your fruit before dehydrating it.

We have a hand-blender, an essential kitchen tool I use often.

Whether I’m making jam, jelly, compote, date square filling, or soups, it’s a must for us.

Other options for making fruit leather recipes could be;

• Apple Sauce
• Sugar-Free Mulberry Jam
• Sugar-Free Strawberry Chia Jam
• Carrot Marmalade

Steps To Dehydrate Fruit Leather Recipes

• Line a dehydrator tray with parchment paper.
• Pour the fruit mixture onto the parchment paper, and using a frosting spatula or knife, smooth the fruit mixture out thin, but keep the border a bit thicker as it will dehydrate first.
• Put the dehydrator on for 10 hours at 140 degrees and let the magic begin.
• Once done, remove the tray from the dehydrator and lift a corner of the fruit leather to remove it from the parchment paper.
• Roll the fruit leather tightly and slice or cut into strips.
• Store the fruit leather in an air-tight bag, jar, or bowl, and enjoy.

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