Your Best Fruit Leather Recipes

These fruit leather recipes from BackpackingChef.com readers will give you some good ideas and inspire you to crank up your blender. Thanks for sharing!

The photo at right shows a leather rolled up in plastic wrap. Plastic wrap keeps the leather from sticking to itself. Lay the leather on top of plastic wrap and roll up together.

Slice rolled up leathers into strips about an inch wide.

Spread nut butters or cream cheese on leathers to make them even more fun to eat. It can get messy as the peanut butter squishes out from the leather when you bite into it.

Refrigerate if adding spreads.

Fruit Leather Recipes shared by BackpackingChef readers:

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Strawberry Apple Leather

Shared by Harp Lauris from Earth

Ingredients:

1 pound of strawberries
1/2 of a medium size apple

Instructions:

Cut the tops off the strawberries and scoop out the flesh of 1/2 an apple, leaving behind the skin. Puree the two fruits together until blended into a liquid. Pour onto fruit leather inserts that come with the dehydrator. Takes about 8-12 hours. Take it off the dehydrator a little before you think its done. As it cools it will stiffen up a bit.

Fruity Jello Leather

Shared by Barbara from Ocala, FL

Ingredients:

2 Quarts Applesauce or other pureed fruit
1 3-oz. Box of Jello, any flavor, sweetened with sugar or sugar free

Instructions:

Combine ingredients and dehydrate, roll in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator until ready to use.  Kids especially love this combination; great snack or dessert for Scout camp outs.

Sweet Potato-Cranberry

Shared by Laurie from El Mirage, AZ

Ingredients:

1 can sweet potato/yam chunks, drained

1 can whole cranberry sauce

1/4 cup white grape juice

Instructions:

Put all ingredients in a food processor and puree until it's completely smooth. Spread evenly and dry at 145 for 6-8 hours

Mulberry-Sour Cherry Fruit Leather

Shared by Patrice from West Brandywine, PA

Puree and strain a mixture of sour cherries and mulberries.I don't usually add sweetener because the mulberries are large and sweet.The tart cherries add an interesting contrasting flavor. I use an oven dehydrator so I cover a cookie sheet with plastic wrap and then add about 2 cups pureed fruit, making it thicker at the edges. It usually takes about 4-6 hours until it's no longer sticky. When it's done, I put a piece of wax paper on each side and roll it up to cut it, slicing each sheet into several 1-2 inch strips. These will last for a few days. I freeze what I want to save for later. They will last for 6 months to a year frozen.

Vanilla Scented Strawberry-Rhubarb Fruit Leather

Shared by Michelle from Eagle, ID

Ingredients:

About 4 quarts 1/4 inch sliced rhubarb.

2 quarts strawberries.

3 cups vanilla sugar, more or less depending on tartness of your fruit.

Instructions:

Put fruit into a large dutch oven and add water up to the level of the fruit. Cover and cook on medium-high until fruit is very soft. Stir in the sugar. Puree mixture with an immersion blender. Continue to cook until reduced to the same thickness of applesauce. Remove from heat. I ladle the puree into small oblong shaped rectangles on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Since my oven has a dehydrate setting, I can fit a lot in there. When they're dry, I simply cut the parchment paper with the fruit leather remaining on it and stack in a sealed container.

Banana Trail Snacks

Shared by Bev K. of Queensland, Australia

Peel and chop 5 or 6 ripe bananas into chunks. Mash bananas with whizz stick or food processor until thick and creamy.

Spread spoonfuls of mixture on parchment paper on dehydrator racks.

Dehydrate for 8-10 hours at 135° until firm but flexible.

After about 6 hours you can remove paper and place biscuits upside down on trays to speed up drying.

Store biscuits in zip bags ready for use.

Eat banana biscuits as high-energy snacks while hiking or with cuppa. Alternatively, rehydrate a single banana biscuit with 2-3 tablespoons of water and stir until a smooth consistency. Use as a dessert or fruit to add to cereal at breakfast.

Sometimes I add 4-5 spoonfuls of Greek yogurt to the banana mixture before drying for a change.

Toast with Rhubarb Jam

Shared by Amy from Tacoma, WA

I carried whole grain Rye Krisp for my morning toast. I cut the box down to keep the Krisps from turning to crumbs in my pack. I made “jam” at breakfast using thin rhubarb rounds. The rhubarb leather was sweetened with Splenda, so it wasn’t real sticky. I carried the rounds in a baggie with my other dehydrated fruit.

To make rhubarb rounds, wash rhubarb stalks and cut off leaves which are not edible. Slice rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces and put in pot with enough water to cover about 1/4th of the rhubarb. Rhubarb is so full of water that if you add too much you will end up with soup. Add sugar or Splenda to sweeten to taste, however sweet or tart you like your rhubarb. Cook until rhubarb falls apart when stirred with spoon. If you find you added too much water you will want to cook it down to it is thick. I drop it on the dehydrator sheet by spoonfuls so that they spread to the size of a quarter or a 50 cent piece. Dehydrate. They should pop off when you bend the sheet. I have an Excalibur and use the Teflon sheets - my 3rd dehydrator so I went for the top of the line and love it! By dehydrating the rhubarb in small rounds you avoid the problem of having it crumble when you cut a big sheet of leather with scissors.

At breakfast, I carefully dunked some of the rhubarb rounds in my tea and then laid the wet rounds on the Rye Krisp, spooning a couple more drops of hot tea on it but not so much that it made the Rye Krisp soggy. I let it sit while I ate my morning gruel and then I had my toast and jam with my tea. I was one happy camper!

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