Fruit Leather (Homemade Fruit Roll-Up)

I finally did it. After daydreaming about making my own fruit leather for over a year, I finally did some internet research on how to undertake such a feat, and found it to be surprisingly simple!

by Courtney Westfall

Welp. I finally did it. After daydreaming about making my own fruit leather for over a year, I finally did some internet research on how to undertake such a feat, and found it to be surprisingly simple!

As I said in my post about Hulk Muffins a few months ago, I love finding healthy recipes that my family will actually enjoy. The proof is always in the pudding, and fruit leathers were a smashing success.

Here’s my painstakingly accurate recipe:

• Handful of spinach (maybe a cup)
• 2 cups of unsweetened applesauce
• 3 chopped peaches (skin on)

Place all items in the blender and blend until smooth. Pour onto parchment paper on the biggest cookie sheet you have and put in the oven on the lowest setting (which was 170 for me, I’d have gone lower if it was possible) for about 4-5 hours (I started testing it at 3 hours until it got the consistency I wanted). I kept it on the parchment paper after it cooled and cut it into strips with kitchen scissors. The kids LOVED them and ask for them a couple of times a day. My husband said he could “taste the spinach” and politely declined after the first bite, but the rest of us are still eating them.

I was so pleased with my initial success that I tried another variation the next day:

• 2 cups unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 cup full fat vanilla yogurt
• 1 chopped nectarine
• A handful of frozen blueberries

You might be starting to see that accuracy is not necessary for this recipe. This round filled up parchment paper on two cookie sheets and took about the same amount of time. I’d say my kids liked them equally as well as the ones with spinach, but if I’m honest, I like the ones without spinach better.

My third time trying fruit leathers, I used:

• Handful of spinach
• 2 cups unsweetened apple sauce1 cup full fat vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup mixed frozen fruit from Sam’s Club
• 1 Tablespoon chia seeds (I thought it might give it more of a gel consistency)

The chia seeds didn’t make much of a difference, but it could have had been the fact that I forgot about my precious experiment and left them in all night! (I’m a children’s pastor not a food blogger, ok?) There were pretty crispy in the morning, but my kids still liked them so I’m counting it a success.

I store these in a ziptop bag in the freezer and they’ve lasted 2 weeks so far. For some reason, my boys love peeling the parchment paper off the back, so it’s like a free gift with purchase!

Courtney grew up in Tulsa and is the Minister of Preschool and Lower Elementary at First United Methodist Church. She earned a BA in Organizational/Interpersonal Communications at Oral Roberts University and an MA in Intercultural Studies from Asbury Theological Seminary. Wife to Kyle and mom to Liam and Brody, with one more on the way, Courtney loves to find ways to make eating healthy enjoyable for her kids.