It’s been a while since I posted a fruit leather recipe here and since I get requests for them once in a while, I thought I’d post a new one today–mango! While I’m not one to discriminate when it comes to fruit leather, I think mango and banana are my two favorites because both can be made without any added sweetener. No sugar, no honey, no agave–just fruit.
I decided to do things a little bit differently this time and use parchment paper instead of spraying my baking sheet with oil. This has a few pros and cons. The biggest downside is that the fruit leather gets a little bit wrinkled as the moisture is baked out. Ugly fruit leather! But using parchment paper makes it much easier to remove the fruit leather from the baking sheet, the bottom of the fruit leather isn’t all oiled up, and if you’re planning on wrapping your fruit leather, you can just cut it into strips while it’s still attached to the parchment. Easy!
Here’s how to make mango fruit leather:
Start with two ripe mangoes. They need to be ripe, otherwise your fruit leather won’t be sweet.
Cut the mangoes into chunks. Don’t know how to cut them? I have a mango cutting tutorial!
Place the mango chunks in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the mango puree onto it. Make sure it’s in an even layer–it’s hard to make it completely even, but do your best! I like sprinkling mine with a small amount of chipotle salt.
Bake at 175ºF for 3-4 hours. After about 2 hours, start checking on your fruit leather every 30 minutes or so. The fruit leather is done when it’s dry to the touch, but still pliable. Sometimes the edges will be finished before the center, in which case you can cut them off and continue baking the rest.
When your fruit leather is done baking, let it cool and then cut it into strips or shapes with a pizza cutter or kitchen shears.
We always eat our fruit leather within a day of making it, but wrapped tightly in plastic and stored in a sealed container, it will last up to one month at room temperature or up to a year in the freezer.
Also follow on:
My toddlers adore unsweetened, dried mango, but it costs a fortune and the closest place to buy it is 2 hours away. I think I need to make this asap. I hate cutting mango, but I bet using frozen mango chunks would work just fine, and I have some in my fridge right now!
I haven’t tried it with frozen mango, but I don’t think it would be any different than fresh.
Hi Kiersten! I love fruit leather but don’t have a dehydrator — thanks so much for sharing this! I’m going to look at your other recipes too. BTW love the chipotle salt you added.:)
You make this look easy! I don’t care if my fruit leather has wrinkles, ease of use sounds more important to me
such creativeness. I love it!
My mouth just watered reading this post and looking at those pictures. Just sayin.
I am so going to try this. Thanks for the great instructions. I am always eating mango. I love it.
I need a blender so I can make this awesomeness!
Yum! I haven’t tried fruit leather, but I imagine it to be the grownup/healthy version of one of my favorite grade-school snacks. And love mango!
Mango is definitely a fav in my household. Gotta make this soonish!
I have been wanting to try this. Thanks for the terrific step-by-step tutorial!
I need to make a batch & see how my daughter likes it.
You know I love mango and this looks very tempting! Trader Joe’s had a product “Just Mango” dried mango slices that was a favorite of one of my sons but they have been out of it lately, if it’s discontinued I will definitely have to try this recipe. I wonder if Mother Hubbard’s idea of frozen mango chunks would actually work? I would think they would start off with a lot more moisture than a fresh mango.
I love those dried mango slices from Trader Joe’s too! I think that frozen mango chunks would work, but I’d imagine that the baking time would have to be upped slightly. I’ve had readers tell me they made some of my other fruit leathers with frozen fruit…
I tried but I must have made it too thin? or maybe I should have sprayed the parchment paper? or my oven was just too hot, as I only baked it for an hour and it was dry and I could NOT peel off the paper..
Hmm, that’s very strange. Even if it was thin, I don’t think it should have baked to be completely dry in an hour (or get stuck to the paper). It sounds like maybe your oven is running hot.
Glad I found your recipe for a no-sugar leather – thank you! I was about to use a recipe for a peach version and just substitute mango.
@Vegan Mother Hubbard – Re: Hating cutting mango…I love the taste of fresh mangoes but have stabbed or sliced myself on more than one occasion while trying to cut them up. I discovered a mango cutter made by OXO that makes the job much safer, and then I pick up Kiersten’s method at step four. Downside is it leaves a little more mango flesh on the seed than what you might get if you are better at slicing them up than I am. But I know how to fix that (yum!).
I have that mango cutter too! I only use it some of the time because, like you, I noticed that it leaves a lot of flesh on the pit. So I kind of have a love/hate relationship with it.
i tried to make this yesterday and i think i burned it! i dont know how
the oven was set to 175 and the timer for 3 hours and checked it in 2 hours (actually i was checking it every 10 mins because i was so excited!) and it started to get brown around the edges and the middle got darker as well but when i touched it, it was still wet. I let it cook some more. When i took it out it was dry on top and wet underneath. I was sad. 
What am i doing wrong?
Are you baking it at 175 degrees fahrenheit? It definitely shouldn’t have cooked that quickly. I make fruit leather all the time and I’ve never had it brown on top and still feel wet underneath, so I’d suspect that your oven might be running a little hotter than mine. You could try at a lower temperature next time and see if that helps.
thanks! i will try that
hope it works!