Apricot Fruit Leather

So, I guess I am a little particular about my fruit leather. Partly because my kids are. I mean, what is the point of making fruit leather if my kids won’t eat it? I have posted about making Pear fruit leather. My pear fruit leather almost always turns out the way we like it. Which is chewy and kind of thick. The taste is never really a problem for me. If it tastes good before you dry it it will taste good after. The problem comes in the texture.

I have had fruit leather that turns out more like paper in texture and it just isn’t as enjoyable to eat. So how do you get that great texture? What is it about pears that make good fruit leather that isn’t in apricots? I haven’t quite figured out what the science behind it is but I think its about pectin. Maybe. Anyone want to weigh in?

In the past I couldn’t get my apricot leather to stay thick like the pear stuff did. I tried adding applesauce or pear sauce. Since if you look on the ingredients of the stuff you buy in the store it is mostly apple or pear flavored with other fruit. But just mixing fruit wasn’t working.

Then I stumbled on upon a recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen. Her mother accidentally roasted some apricots instead of drying them and they found that it made good fruit leather that way. When I have apricots I have a ton so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

I roasted the apricots in a sheet pan for 15 minutes at 400 degrees then let them cool before blending them up spreading them on the fruit leather trays, and voila! Beautiful thick fruit leather. I was amazed, and it was gone right away because my kids loved it so much.

So I was really excited this year to try it again. I roasted the apricots, threw them in the blender and dried them but they came out thin and not chewy. Don’t get me wrong, it still tasted great. My kids saw it and got so excited but about two bites into it they lost interest. I sent them with my husband to work and his co-workers loved it. But why didn’t it work?

I think it might be because the heating process activates the pectin in the apricots. Pectin is what thickens jams and jellies. I think it allowed the apricots to keep air bubbles in the puree as it dried. This last time I did it I didn’t wait for the apricots to cool down before blending them up. So as they dried all the air bubbles just came to the surface.

I am going to be testing my theory in the next day or two, I will let you know how it goes. But if you have any experience in this please let me know!

In the meantime, here is how you make apricot fruit leather:

(very similar to pear fruit leather, if you watched my video, the only difference is the roasting)

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F
• Wash and pit apricots (enough to fill two cookie sheets)
• Lay them skin side down on cookie sheets
• Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes (depending on size)
• Allow to cool
• Blend until smooth
• Taste it. If it need a little sweetener add your choice of sweetener. I usually don’t need much. Maybe 1/4 cup of sugar for the whole blender full, if that.
• Spread on either greased dehydrator fruit leather trays or cookie sheets (If using cookie sheets I like to line them with saran wrap and spray on oil first)
• Dry several hours,
  • either in dehydrator or oven on lowest heat. You can also dry fruit leather in the sun but, yeah, outside adds a whole new set of variables. We tried it this year with an old window screen on top of the cookie sheet to keep stuff out. It worked great and didn’t heat up the house.
• Check often
  • There are so many variables that will affect your dry time so I don’t feel comfortable giving you a set time but it could be anywhere from 2-9 hours. It all depends on how thick you spread it, how how your oven or dehydrator is and how ripe your fruit was to begin with. So just check it often
• When you can touch the top and it doesn’t stick to your finger it is done. Unless you can feel that there is a layer of mush underneath. In which case keep drying it. You may want to consider flipping it over.
• That’s it! cut it or tear it into pieces using a knife or kitchen shears. Then store it in an air tight container. I like to put mine in glass jars that I can vacuum seal, but anything will work. If you are going to eat it quickly a ziplock bag will be just fine.