Amidst our packing frenzy, the figs on our lovely backyard fig tree have decided that now is the time to become perfectly ripe. This poses a problem for a few different reasons…. 1) The tree is big and old and produces a TON of fruit, 2) I’m the only one in our family that truly enjoys fresh figs, 3) Keeping up with the daily picking of the fruit is time consuming, and 4) If I don’t keep up with the picking, our backyard becomes a sticky mess filled with wasps.
In an effort to avoid a waspy sticky mess of a backyard, I’ve been giving away boxes of figs to almost every person I’ve been in contact with, I’ve been adding 3 or 4 to our green smoothie each morning, and I’ve been eating them fresh as my nightly treat, but that just wasn’t enough. I needed a way to use up a ton of figs all at once, and preferably it would be something that the other members of my family would enjoy too. Enter fruit leather…
Gracen loves fruit leather, and though it can be a little intimidating if you’ve never made it before, it’s truly one of the easiest, most forgiving things to make. And no special equipment is needed! If you have some fruit, an oven, a baking pan, and some parchment paper, you can easily make your own fruit leather at home.
I’ve made several batches of this stuff already, and it’s getting eaten up like nobody’s business! Plus I’ve changed my method a little bit and it’s now even easier for me to make my own fruit leather. Here’s how to do it…
Apple Fig Fruit Leather
- 10 ripe figs, washed
- 2 apples, cored and peeled
- 1 cup of water (fresh-squeezed apple or orange juice works too!)
Preheat oven to 125 degrees (or lowest setting) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (paper should cover all edges of the pan).
Place all ingredients in a covered pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer fruit {still covered} for about 30 minutes, or until super soft.
Pour everything into a food processor or good blender and purée until smooth.
Pour fruit mixture out onto parchment-lined baking sheet and use the back of a spatula to spread the fruit purée out so it covers the entire base of the pan. Gently shake the pan make the purée as even as possible.
Pop into the oven for approximately 8 hours (I put ours in just before going to bed). You want to remove the fruit leather from the oven when it’s still sticky to the touch, but not at all wet. You may find that part of your fruit leather will be done earlier than the rest. In this case, you’ll need to remove the fruit leather from the oven, cut off the finished part, and return the still wet to the touch part to the oven for another hour or two.
When finished, simply remove the large sheet of fruit leather from the baking sheet, cut of the excess parchment paper around the edges, and cut directly through both the remaining parchment and fruit leather to create strips. Roll strips and secure with baker’s twine or washi tape. Store in an air-tight container or jar.
Enjoy!
See our other homemade fruit leather recipes here:
Berry Banana // Apple Pear Carrot
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