Strawberry Fruit Leather Recipe
Strawberry Fruit Leather Recipe
I recently purchased nine pounds of strawberries from a fruit truck that comes up from Florida. Living in Montana, we don’t get the opportunity for fresh fruit in the winter very often. I was ready for some bright colors and summer tastes to break the monotony of this cold weather.
A Few Notes
So, I brought my flat of strawberries home and had fun making a few of my favorite deserts, but I still had some extras left over. One of my favorite snacks growing up was Fruit Roll Ups, so I decided to get my Pinterest on and look up some homemade strawberry roll up recipes. After some experimenting, this is the recipe that I liked the most.
The first thing I knew going into this was that I didn’t want to use a ton of sugar, and the second was that I wanted to use my Craftworx dehydrator. It was Easter weekend, and I didn’t want to take up precious space in my oven when I needed to use it for other things.
There are a few things about the Craftworx dehydrator that I really appreciate. It has a digital timer that goes from 1 hour all the way up to 48 hours. As you run it, it switches back and forth between showing the time remaining and the temperature. On this dehydrator, the temperature can go from 104 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (40 to 70 degrees Celsius). You can single press the button on the front of it to go up by one degree or hold it to go up quicker.
Another feature I like is that you can make your trays stack either tall or short. By rotating your tray 180 degrees, you can change where it’s stacked tall or shot. This can come in super handy when you are drying food that are thicker.
This recipe only uses three ingredients: Strawberries, honey, and lemon juice. Super easy. One thing to keep in mind is that this recipe does not make a huge amount of fruit leather. After spreading it out in the dehydrator at 1/8th of an inch, it only made four 4 by 5 inch rolls. You may want to double or triple the recipe to get the most out of your time.
Below is a step-by-step guide to your homemade fruit leather with pictures included!
Step One: Prepare your dehydrator
Line your dehydrator with parchment paper. I used a Craftworx 6-tray dehydrator that you can buy at your local North 40 Outfitters. Parchment paper works better than wax paper. I traced the outline of one of the trays and cut it out. It worked great.
Step Two: Prepare the fruit
Wash 3 cups of strawberries and remove the stems. I used 3 tablespoons of lemon juice straight from the source because I happened to have one already. You can get your honey from North 40 Outfitters too! They get their honey from Smoot Honey, a small business located in Power, Montana. You'll need 2 tablespoons for this recipe.
Step Three: Blend it up
Add 3 cups of strawberries, 3 tablespoons of honey, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a blender or food processor and blend it until smooth. If your strawberries are as juicy as mine were, the mixture is going to pretty runny by the end of this. The next step helps with this problem.
Step Four: Cook the mix
Pour your strawberry puree into a saucepan. Make sure the scrape the bottom. Some of the honey sank to the bottom of mine. Bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes. This will remove some of the moisture and thicken up the mixture. It’s going to be a lot easier to spread on to your parchment paper and you won’t have to worry about it going everywhere.
Step Five: Cool and spread the mix
After you let your mixture cool, spread it out onto your parchment paper. I decided to do it in rectangles that were about 4 inches by 5 inches. I tried to keep them as even as possible, because I knew I wanted to roll them up in those sizes. You can make yours whatever size you want, just remember to try and keep them straight if you want to cut them into even rolls. I made mine closer to 1/8 inch thick, but you can go up to 1/4 inch. If you make them thicker, just be prepared to dehydrate them for a longer amount of time.
Step Six: Dehydrate
Set your dehydrator to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and put 5 hours on the timer. You’ll know it’s done when you don’t see darker wet spots and you can touch it without leaving an indentation. It might be a little sticky, but it shouldn’t be wet. If you over cook it, it might start to crack. That’s ok though! It’s still edible.
Step Seven: Roll and enjoy!
After it’s done, you can use a clean pair of scissors to cut the leather into whatever size you want! Roll them up and enjoy!
Strawberry Fruit Roll Up Recipe
Ingredients:
3 Cups Strawberries (Fresh or Thawed)
3 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
*Consider doubling or tripling this recipe*
Instructions:
1. Wash strawberries and remove stems.
2. Combine strawberries, honey, and lemon juice in blender or food processor.
3. Pour puree into saucepan and bring to boil. Summer for 10 minutes. Cool.
4. Line your dehydrator with parchment paper and spread mixture onto sheets, keeping it 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick.
5. Dehydrate for 5 hours at 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Cut into squares and roll or enjoy as is.
Top Dehyrdrating Products
-
Craftworx Jerky Rack$9.99 -
Craftworx 6 Tray Dehydrator$89.99 -
Craftworx Stainless Grinder #8$349.99 -
Craftworx Household Grinder #8$119.99 -
Craftworx Game Processing Board$34.99 - $69.99 -
Craftworx Vacuum Sealer Bags - 100 pk$19.99 - $39.99 -
Craftworx Zipper Top Vacuum Sealer Bags - 50 pk$14.99 - $19.99 -
Craftworx Vacuum Sealer Bag Rolls - 3 pk$19.99 - $24.99
About the Author: Kylie Richter
Kylie Richter is a multimedia journalist who joined the North 40 media team in 2021. She’s a sixth generation Montanan – something she’s always been proud of. She grew up on a wheat farm on the Hi-Line. A journalism graduate from the University of Montana, Kylie spent a few years working in the newspaper world before deciding to switch to marketing. She’s also dabbled in coaching, construction, and runs her own small business. Working for North 40 gave her the opportunity to get back to her roots. Not a day goes by where she doesn’t appreciate the chance to hit the backroads out in the country for work.