Berry Banana Fruit Leather

Homemade Banana Berry Fruit LeatherOne of the few ready-made packaged foods I buy now and then is organic all-fruit fruit leather strips.  They’re a very special treat for Miss G and I don’t feel horrible about letting her have one once and a while (as long as her teeth are brushed extra well that day), but I’ve always known that I should probably be making them at home instead.  Recently, our local grocery store stopped restocking their organic fruit leather supply (I think they’re getting rid of the current stock and then no longer carrying them) and they were down to just two lonely strips on our last visit. It was the perfect push I needed to try making my own. 

IMG 4699Today I asked Gracen if she’d like to try making some fruit leather of our own, and she responded enthusiastically with, “Sure!  Purple ones.” so I decided we’d try  a berry variety first.  Since we don’t really buy many berries when they’re out of season, we went with what we had in the freezer – strawberries, raspberries, and wild blueberries.  Plus an apple and half a lemon for texture and a little kick.

IMG 4713As we were prepping the fruit, which really only consists of peeling and coring the apple, we decided to add a banana in the mix for sweetness.

IMG 4715With all of the ingredients ready to go, Gracen popped them into a large pot…

IMG 4720Then squeezed the lemon on top…

IMG 4722And added a little bit of water.

IMG 4724Then we popped the mixture on the stove to stew over medium heat for a while.

IMG 4725About a half hour later, this is what we had.

IMG 4727We let it cool for a little bit and then dumped it in the food processor to puree for a bit.

IMG 4728With our mixture nice and smooth, we lined a baking sheet with parchment paper…

IMG 4731And poured our berry mixture on top.

IMG 4732Using a spatula, we spread the mixture out to cover the entire base of the pan (on our next attempt, I’d spend a little more time getting it as evenly as possible) and put the pan in the oven on the lowest temperature.

IMG 4758Eight and a half hours later (yes – it takes a long time!) this is what we had.

IMG 4761We carefully peeled off the parchment paper…

IMG 4762And then I used kitchen scissors to cut it into strips.

IMG 4769A little parchment paper and baking twine later, we had our own homemade {and healthy!} version of a Fruit Roll-Up.  ☺

 

Banana Berry Fruit Leather 

  • 1 cup of raspberries, frozen or fresh
  • 1 cup of strawberries, frozen or fresh
  • 1 cup of blueberries, frozen or fresh
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1 Granny Smith apple
  • juice of 1/2 of a lemon
  • 1/3 cup of water
Peel the banana and peel and core the apple.  Put all of the fruit into a large pot along with the water and the juice from the lemon.  Stew the fruit on medium heat (uncovered) for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool a while.
 
Pour the stewed fruit into a blender or food processor and puree.  
 
Pour the pureed mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and use a spatula to evenly distribute the mixture over the base of the pan.  Bake at 150 degrees for 8 to 9 hours, removing it from the oven when the leather is no longer sticky to the touch.
 
Peel away the parchment paper and cut into strips using kitchen scissors or a pizza cutter.
 
Enjoy immediately or roll using parchment strips and baker’s twine and store in an air-tight jar.  
 

♥ 

Keep up with all the Mama.Papa.Bubba. fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.

 

5 thoughts on “Berry Banana Fruit Leather

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.