Applesauce Fruit Leather Recipe

Fruit Leather Recipe

Snack :/snak/noun: A small amount of food eaten between meals.  Such a simple definition requiring such a complex decision! Have you seen the mass quantity of snacks available to us? Almost every time I go to the grocery store, there is yet another snack to hit the market. Row upon row of snacks just waiting for you to make yet another choice in your busy day. To make it easier, our family only selects those snacks with short ingredient lists. The only problem is that the more “natural” a product, the more expensive the price. Ugh.

Thus, we have taken the snacking conundrum head on and started making applesauce fruit leather. May I introduce you to this one ingredient wonder? Here are the stats: It is all natural (literally) and very cheap to make.  No snack travels better (Who needs unnecessary boxes, bags, containers or utensils?) and you will find that it is a snack loved by all. I probably eat just as much “fwoot weather” as my two year old daughter.

The only ingredient is applesauce and if you can, try to get no sugar added. Naturally, the leather will be sweeter than the sauce after the dehydration process. Every fall, we preserve a huge batch of applesauce with just apples. This makes it really easy to go from sauce to leather all year round. Defrosted frozen applesauce works great too.

Start by spreading the applesauce onto a plastic dehydrator tray 1/8 inch thick. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can spread it onto a sided baking pan; bottom lined with plastic wrap (don’t worry, it won’t melt at such a low temperature!)

Do a little shake with the tray or pan to even out the layer… this is what it should look like when you are done.

Set your dehydrator or oven to 145 degrees and let it cook. If you have a regular oven that can’t be set at that low of a temperature, crack the oven door with a spoon until you can reach a consistent 145 degrees.  If you have a convection oven, make sure you turn the convection feature “on.”

After two hours, check the leather. It should be about halfway done and still quite sticky. Let it go another two hours or until it is no longer sticky to the touch. Keep in mind it may take longer if you have a regular oven as there is no circulating air.

Now you can easily peel the leather away from the plastic …Come on and ride that fruit wave!!

Cut the leather into strips and store them in layers within plastic wrapping.  It will last for weeks in the cupboard and be ready to grab the next time you want a healthy snack …without all the choices.

Enjoy!

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My sister, Meredith is going to start sharing some of her awesome recipes with you (and me!) right here on Cleverly Simple.  She makes some really cool things, so I’m excited that she’s willing to share her expertise.  If you like recipes like this one, make sure to let us know in the comments below.  

Meredith is a pastor’s wife and stay-at-home mom living in NW Ohio. She loves to adapt recipes to her family’s eclectic tastes and is learning to provide nourishment for any bellies who walk through the door at a moment’s notice. If not in the kitchen, you’ll find Meredith in front of her sewing machine or spending quality time with her home and church families. Life goes by so fast!