Hello again! It’s Alicia from The Baker Upstairs, and I have another fun and delicious recipe to share with you today! This homemade strawberry apricot fruit leather tastes just like summertime, and is so easy to make, too. It’s the perfect way to enjoy some of that abundant summer fruit!
One of my favorite summer traditions with my family is picking fresh berries at a local farm. It took a little while to get the kids on board with us (their first reaction was, “Wait, we’re PAYING MONEY so we can DO WORK?”) but now they enjoy it too. The farm near us has a huge variety of berries, so we like to visit multiple times throughout the summer for fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. We visited last week for strawberry season, and ended up picking a little over 13 pounds of strawberries in about 30 minutes. There were so many juicy ripe berries, and we all just kept adding them to our buckets. Before we knew it, we had a huge harvest to take home!
My whole family loves homemade jam, so I made sure to make several big batches of jam to last us until next strawberry season. We also made some cute strawberry hand pies, and several smoothies. With the last of our strawberries, my kids begged me to make this homemade strawberry apricot fruit leather, and I was happy to comply! Homemade fruit leather is one of our favorite treats. It’s easy to make, tastes way better than store-bought fruit snacks, and the kids love it.
My favorite thing about this fruit leather is that since I’m making it myself, I can control all of the ingredients. I know exactly what my kids are eating, and there are no artificial colors or flavors. We do like our fruit leather pretty sweet (which is probably something we should work on as a family) but if you and/or your kids have less of a sweet tooth, you could easily halve or even quarter the amount of sugar in the recipe, and I’m sure it would still taste fantastic!
Strawberry Apricot Fruit Leather
The full recipe is at the bottom of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:
- fresh strawberries
- apricots
- lemon juice
- sugar
With just four ingredients, this recipe couldn’t be simpler! Wash and hull the strawberries, pit the apricots, and throw all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Pour the pureed fruit onto two baking sheets lined with silicone liners, and spread as evenly as possible. Spreading it evenly helps the fruit leather cook evenly, so you won’t have overcooked areas and gooey areas. The silicone baking pan liners are definitely necessary for this recipe! I’ve tried it in the past with parchment paper, and the paper got soggy and hard to work with. The liners are fairly inexpensive (I’ve seen them sold for around $4-5 each) and they are useful for a variety of recipes, so I definitely think they are worth the investment.
The fruit leather takes quite a while to cook, so be patient! You’ll want to set your oven to 170 (or as low as your oven will go). Cook the fruit leather for an hour and a half, then rotate the baking sheets. Continue to cook it for another hour to an hour and a half. The fruit leather is done when it feels just slightly tacky when you tap it lightly.
Because it cooks at such a low heat, the fruit leather will cool very quickly, and then it’s ready to roll. I cut each sheet of fruit leather into eight strips, then cut strips of parchment paper as wide as my strips. I rolled them up, and we were all set. You’ll want to store them in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out. We usually use either a ziplock bag or an Oxo pop-top container, and they both work great.
This strawberry apricot fruit leather keeps really well, so it’s perfect for bringing on a hike or a camping trip, or for packing in a picnic lunch. If anything, I feel like the texture of the fruit leather is better after it has been stored for a day or two. It has the perfect amount of sweetness, and has so much delicious fruit flavor!
My kids are totally nuts for this fruit leather and eat it all up as fast as they can, but it will keep for up to two weeks if you don’t have two strawberry-crazy girls living at your house. It’s one of our favorite treats, and we look forward to making it every summer!
Strawberry Apricot Fruit Leather
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh strawberries hulled
- 2 medium apricots pitted and cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170. (If your oven doesn't go as low as 170, preheat it to its lowest setting.) Line two baking sheets with silicone liners and set aside.
- Add the strawberries, apricots, sugar, and lemon juice to a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth.
- Divide the fruit puree between the two baking sheets, and spread evenly.
- Bake for 3 hours, rotating the baking sheets after 1 1/2 hours. After 2 1/2 hours, start testing for doneness every 10-15 minutes by lightly tapping the fruit leather with your finger. If it feels slightly tacky but not sticky or wet, it is done.
- Let cool, then cut each tray into 8 strips and wrap in parchment paper. Store in an airtight container.
This deliciously sweet strawberry apricot fruit leather is so easy to make at home, and is the perfect way to use some of that fresh summer fruit!
Source : onelittleproject.com
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