Pear Fruit Leather

If you have three pear trees you end up with a lot of pears. I needed a way to use up a lot of pears at once. Our family’s favorite way to eat pears, besides fresh, is fruit leather. I pack it in lunches and share it with friends. It is so great we eat it like it’s candy.  Except I feel much better about giving my kids homemade fruit leather instead of candy.

It is a pretty simple process, although it does take some time. But if stored correctly it will last over a year. The dehydration process preserves it. 

I usually wash mine just to get the dust off. So I fill my sink with cold water and carefully put the pears in. Once they are ripe they bruise easily so try to be gentle. Once they are in the sink I gather my supplies.

What you need:

• Pears (duh)
• Cutting board
• Potato peeler
• Knife
• Bowl with water and lemon juice (for putting cut pieces in, it keeps them from turning brown)
• Blender or food processor
• Dehydrator trays or cookie sheets (I like to use silicone mats or saran wrap on my cookie sheets) 
• Garbage bucket or can 
• Rag (optional) for wiping off juicy hands and keeping drips off your legs.

Once I have everything ready I just start peeling and chopping.  If I can talk someone into helping me it goes a lot faster. Then one of us peels and the other one chops. If I am working alone I usually peel a few then cut them all up before peeling more.  Here is my order:

1. Peel off skin
2. Remove any blemishes
3. Cut in Quarters from the stem going down
4. Remove seeds, stem, blossom and any internal blemishes
5. Drop pieces in bowl with lemon juice and water.
6. Blend pieces into puree
7. Spread on prepared fruit leather sheets
8. Dry
9. Cut and package
10. Eat! or Store for later eating!

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How do you know when it is done?

At this point all you do is wait and check, then wait and check until it is done. For me it usually takes about 7-8 hours, depending on how humid the day is. I live in Utah, which is technically a desert. It may take longer where you live. If you poke it with a finger and it comes off on your finger it is not done yet. Once you can touch it without it coming off it is done. It should peel off in one piece. If it doesn’t stick together that usually means that at least part of it is not dry yet. Sometimes I don’t spread my puree evenly so it doesn’t finish at the same time. It’s not the end of the world, just take off the part that is done and keep drying the rest.

If you let it dry too long it will turn brittle. Again, it isn’t the end of the world, just label it as pear chips. 🙂 But try to catch it before that point because it is delicious and chewy. 

What if I don’t have a dehydrator?

There are lot’s of options. Mostly you just need to spread it thin and dry it out. I used cookie sheets with Saran wrap on the bottom. You can leave it in the oven on its lowest temperature or outside in the sun. I worried about leaving it outside because we have critters, but if you have a patio or something like that, outside might be a good option. Although, if you have your own trees I recommend looking into dehydrators. There are so many things you can use them for.

Pears are special!

I should also mention that I have tried fruit leather with other fruit and it is not as easy to get the same satisfying texture without some additional steps. I plan to post about how I make apricot and plum fruit leather. Pears are the only fruits that I have been able to simply peel, chop, puree and spread. They don’t really need sugar and they have a great mouth feel naturally. I am guessing because of their natural pectin content. Does anyone out there want to comment on that. 

Have you tried pears in fruit leather? How did it turn out? I would love to hear your results.

Here is a video.

How do you store it?

You can store your fruit leather in any air tight container. I used to use ziploc bags and then put them in tupperware. However, I felt like they started to taste like plastic after a few months. I have started storing them in glass jars and vacuum sealing them. They stay fresh a lot longer this way. At the end of the video you can watch me vacuum seal my jars.