How to Make Fruit Leather Without a Dehydrator (Recipes + Tips)
Inside: Skip the boxed kind with fake food dyes and artificial flavors. Here’s how to make healthy homemade fruit leather at home with real fruit — no dehydrator needed!
Ever look at a packaged food and wonder: Could I make that myself?
I do, quite a lot. And Fruit Roll-Ups were one of those foods.
So I was happy to find out that I could make them pretty easily without a dehydrator. You just need a sheet pan, an oven, and a few hours.
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It’s satisfying to be able to give my kids a treat that’s so much tastier than the boxed kind and actually contains real fruit, with no added oils, synthetic food dyes, or fake flavors.
Here are my fruit leather recipes:
Over the years, I’ve experimented and learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. I’ve also gotten feedback from readers who have tried their hand at it too, some successfully and some not so much. Here are my biggest tips.
How to Make Homemade Fruit Leather in the Oven
1. Use a Silpat baking mat
From the start, I’ve always used a Silpat silicone baking mat, and I’ve always been successful. If you don’t have a Silpat, it’s worth investing in one. It will last for years and years and you’ll find all kinds of uses for it (like baking these Easy Homemade Bagels.)
Be warned: Some people claim you can make fruit leather on parchment paper, while others report that it’s a sticky mess. One poor reader baked her leather on waxed paper which, as you can imagine, she later regretted.
2. Spread evenly + bang
Your fruit leather has the best chances of turning out well if the mixture is spread evenly on the baking sheet, so one section doesn’t get crispy while another stays gooey.
Use a spatula to spread the fruit mixture. Then, holding the sheet pan on either side, bang it the counter a few times for good measure. Keep in mind that the leather will dry inward: The edges will dry out first, the middle last.
3. Put your oven on the lowest setting
My oven’s lowest setting is 170 degrees F. All ovens are different, so yours may be different. Keep in mind that the baking/drying time will be longer or shorter depending on how low your oven goes.
4. Be patient (but check frequently)
My leathers typically take about 3-4 hours to bake on my oven’s lowest setting of 170 degrees F. But I’ve heard from some readers that it’s closer to 4-5 hours in their ovens, so this is clearly a project for a day when you’re sticking around at home!
After the first hour, I typically start checking every 30 minutes, touching the leather lightly. You’ll know it’s done when it’s still slightly sticky but doesn’t come off onto your finger.
5. Remove dried edges
As it bakes, the leather will dry inward: The edges will dry out first, the center last. When checking your fruit leather, if you find that the edges are dry but the middle isn’t, remove the baking sheet, cut off the edges, and roll them up. Then put the tray back into the oven to continue drying.
6. Use scissors to cut
In the early days, I used a pizza cutter to cut the strips of fruit leather. But that will damage your silicone mat. I now recommend using clean scissors. Gently lift the leather up and cut into strips, whatever size you’d like.
If you find that the leather is too wet to lift and cut, put it back in the oven to dry longer.
Questions about fruit leather without a dehydrator
Can you make homemade fruit leather with no sugar?
My Grape Fruit Leather recipe just contains just one ingredient (grapes!).
Because I like to let the fruit’s natural flavor shine through, I don’t use much added sugar in my other recipes. I may call for a little bit of honey or sugar in some of my recipes, but feel free to leave it out completely.
Do you strain the mixture after pureeing?
I don’t strain the fruit mixture after pureeing. Though some recipes suggest doing that, I like knowing that the leather contains the entire fruit puree . The exception: blackberry puree, which has a lot of crunchy seeds, is best strained.
Do you need to roll fruit leather on parchment or waxed paper?
You can, and it can look pretty wrapped in twine as shown above. But you can also just roll the fruit leather without using any paper.
How do you store homemade fruit leather?
Place homemade fruit leather in an airtight container or zip-top bag. According to the National Center for Home Preservation, homemade fruit leather will last one month at room temperature. You can also tightly wrap rolls of homemade fruit leather and freeze them for up to a year.
Is homemade fruit leather healthy?
Your child is getting real pureed fruit, which is a big improvement over the boxed kind. But I still consider fruit leather, even the homemade kind, a treat. They cling to teeth just like sticky candy, so it’s ideal if your child can brush soon afterwards (or at least rinse with water or munch on some apples or carrots to naturally wash away the residue).
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