Plum Fruit Leather

Our plum tree did pretty well this year. It doesn’t usually produce a ton of fruit which is good, because I don’t know what I would do with any more plums. My favorite way to use them currently is to make fruit leather.

Plums get very sweet on the inside, but the skin stays pretty tart. And they are so juicy, they can be so messy to eat. Unless you pick them before they get ripe. But then they are super tart. As you may have noticed, I am not exactly sure how I feel about eating plums. I can’t say they are my favorite, but I do enjoy them. It helps that they are ripe before most of the peaches. I just don’t have a lot of uses for them.

Of course on a tree the fruit doesn’t all ripen at the same rate. Some of the fruit gets ripe and falls off while others are still hard. We had a lot going on so we were not in a rush to go out and pick the plums that were ripe early. This week we finally had time to go out. We decided to just pick everything whether it was hard or soft. I think this was the right choice. Especially since we were planning to make fruit leather. Which means that everything will get blended together. So the super sweet and the slightly tart will balance each other out.

Anyway, back to the fruit leather. I don’t know much about plums in general but the ones from this tree are really hard to get the pit out of. It is kind of like a mango. You know it’s in there but the fleshy fruit around it just won’t let it go. So, like a mango, we decided that it was easiest to just cut around the pit instead of digging it out.

In the beginning I was cutting them in half and then ripping the one half off the pit. Then I would dig out the pit with a strawberry huller. Which is basically a little scoop with sharp edges. It worked pretty well but was taking a long-ish time. So we switched to the slice around method. Less tool switching means faster results. The pieces are not as uniform but they are all going to be blended up so it doesn’t really matter.

I learned from Natasha’s Kitchen, that a really good method for making fruit leather with stone fruits is to roast them in the oven first. I am not sure what exactly happens, if it is removing liquid, activating pectin or some other factor that I haven’t considered. Whatever the case, it allows more bubbles to say in the puree, which means chewier leather. I have really been happy with the results of roasting stone fruits before pureeing them.

So, first you pit the plums, then you roast them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then you let them cool down. I am almost positive the this is a really important step. (according to my own experience) If you don’t let them cool the puree looses it’s air bubbles really fast once you start drying it. I believe that the bubbles are what make the leather chewy, even when it is dry. But you also need to be careful not to over-dry it.

After they are cool put them in a blender or food processor and blend them until they are smooth.

Then I recommend tasting the puree. If it tastes great then go ahead and spread it on whatever you are planning on drying it on, either fruit leather trays or cookie sheets. But if it is too tart or bitter just add a little sweetener. Trust me. It is worth a little sweetener to make sure all your hard work gets enjoyed. Sure it will be healthier if you don’t add sugar but if you (and your family) don’t like the way it tastes when it is done, it very well could just sit on your shelf. So, make sure it tastes good. I added about half a cup of sugar for one whole tray of prunes. Which ended up being almost 8 cups of puree. So it isn’t much sugar per serving.

Once you are satisfied with the flavor you can spread it on your drying trays. I have a dehydrator now, and I bought fruit leather trays to go on it because I end up doing a lot of fruit leather every year. When I was just starting I didn’t have a dehydrator or fruit leather trays so I just used cookie sheets. In fact I still use that method if I have extra.

If you are going to use cookie sheets, I recommend lining the bottom with either a silicone mat or saran wrap that has been lightly sprayed. Then you will spread the puree about a 1/4 inch thick. The most important thing is to make it a uniform thickness so it dries evenly. Then you will turn on your oven to as low as it will go. For me that is 200 degrees F. Then you just slide your cookie sheet in and let it dry.

If it is nice outside I will sometimes put my cookie sheet out in the sun to dry. This method is really nice during the hottest part of the year because it doesn’t heat up your house. It helps that I live in the desert so I don’t really have to worry about rain or humidity much in July or August. We also have an old window screen that we have washed up and we use to cover the cookie sheet to keep leaves and stuff out. I haven’t noticed that bugs are a problem, I think because they do get so hot so fast in the sun.

If you are using fruit leather trays on your dehydrator I still recommend greasing your trays so the final product comes off easily. I like to use spray on oil and then spread it with my fingers so it is just a thin layer. Then you just pour your puree into your sheets and load them onto your dehydrator. My dehydrator is very basic so I don’t have any temperature setting. If yours does I would say just start on a medium setting and keep an eye on it.

I would really like to tell you how long it is going to take to dry but there are so many factors. Temperature, humidity, thickness, it all plays a roll. So the best advice I can give is just keep an eye on it. My experience is that it usually takes 6-8 hours. So I would say the first 4 you can probably just leave it alone. When you do check it just see if it sticks to your finger. If it doesn’t then it is either done, or really close.

I have found that we like it more when it is on the underdone side. I am usually a little surprised by how often I get it too dry. So recently I have been turning it off as soon as I can touch it without it sticking to my finger. Then I let it cool and see if it peels off easily. If it doesn’t there is no harm done, I just dry it a little longer. Sometimes I can peel it off and flip it over. But there have been a few times recently where I thought surely I would have to dry it more but it turned out to be just right.

If you do happen to over-dry it, you don’t necessarily have to throw it out. It’s just all about the marketing. You just have to tell everyone it is fruit chips, then you are good. 🙂

If we are going to eat it quickly I will just store these in a ziploc bag. But for long term storage I like to put them in glass jars. I have a vacuum sealer with a mason jar attachment. So I stuff them in and suck the air out. I have found that they last over a year this way and still taste great. The glass does not affect the taste like plastic would.

This is very similar to how I do apricot fruit leather. If you would like to see my post about that it is here. I also make a lot of pear fruit leather but it has a really great texture without being baked. I have a post about that here, which includes a video.