This year the floods killed the grass under the apple trees. The apples fall and hit stone hard ground. This leaves a gigantic deep bruise, that means the apples have to be used in a couple days. My solution to getting food out of them is to make fruit leather.
Do you have any tips on making fruit leather from apples. Any pitfalls or common mistakes you can point out will be great. I have a dehydrator that has 5 tray inserts for making fruit leather. It’s not a big commercial dehydrator. It’s a smaller stackable home unit.
I’ve dehydrated pineapple in the past, and it’s so much better than store bought. I hope the fruit leather is as remarkably different. The wild grapes are ready to pick and my Fredonia grapes are almost ready. A week or two at the most until they have to be processed.
I’ll also take suggestions on good fruit leather recipes, that don’t require me to purchase something expensive.
Storage suggestions you have tried that work good are welcome. I’m planning on freezer storage in canning jars to keep out moisture and extend shelf life.
I Made about 5 cups of apple sauce and added some of the cherry juice I processed this summer. The taste is good now. I guess I’ll find out if I screwed up late today or early tomorrow. I’m still looking for additions to this thread.
Applesauce is pretty much the base for all fruit leather. One thing I’ve done is add a quantity of frozen strawberries to an equal amount of applesauce, and cooked them down till they were all the same texture (may take a slight amount of mashing), and the fruit leathered them - “strawberry leather.” I don’t add any sweetener usually. Not much to it really - just wait until none of it is “squishy” to the touch. The most important thing is to spread the mush as equally as possible, and no more then a quarter inch thick.
Like Hello Again, I prefer to blend some berries in with the apples. Apple leather alone is…okay, but uninspiring. Frozen berries work just as well as fresh for this. Other than that, it really couldn’t be easier: smoosh and spread on fruit leather sheets or plastic wrap and dehydrate 'till leathery. I have a Vita-Mix, so I don’t cook the apples to make applesauce first, I just throw the apples (and berries, if desired) in the Vita-Mix (skins, seeds and all) and puree until smooth. If you’re picky about looks, add some lemon juice to the mix, it’ll keep it from getting as brown.
I went with the steamer method. Cut the apples into chunks and throw them into the top steamer pan. Let them steam 10 minutes and they were soft I used a mixer to make the sauce in about a minute and blend in the cherry juice. The mixture is pinkish. I didn’t want plain apple leather, because it’s easy to improve on it with stronger fruit like the cherry juice. I’m considering cinnamon in it or if I can think up a way to get caramel apple flavor in it all the better.
I’m wondering how much of the grape skin I can use. it may taste better with only the juice.
I made 2 and a half trays for this first batch. I didn’t want to screw up a giant batch. The leather is about half way done, and the texture is weird to touch it. The color is appetizing. I wouldn’t mind dehydrating some pineapple rings too. I wish I had cranberries growing nearby. I did pick them once, and they are not hard to pick for only a few pounds. It’s fun to be able to say I picked those cranberries at the table. It’s a Martha Steward moment at the Thanksgiving meal.
I rubbed a little oil on the tray liner this time, and it came off much better. The wax paper I roll them up with is better than using plastic wrap. I’m sure after a short time the plastic wrap will be very hard to remove from the fruit leather roll up. This year I guess I’ll be making fruit leather for a bit. Now if somebody would go collect some hickory nuts for me. I really can’t spend the time with this I’d like, because I still am trying to beat the water table rising while trying to water proof the basement.
