I've posted fruit leather recipes before, but if I haven't convinced you yet, let me try again - Making your own fruit leather is super easy. Super easy.
And when you make it yourself, you're making it without food coloring, without sugar, and without artificial flavors. Just fruit, nothing else. This is a great fun and tasty summertime activity for kids too.
So are you convinced? Yes? Well, let's make some homemade Strawberry Banana Fruit Leather!
How to Make Fruit Leather
Start with high quality strawberries. Not those crunchy apple-sized ones that taste like a whole lotta nothing. You'll need about 2 cups of strawberries and 1 large banana.
Preheat your oven to 175ºF.
Cut the tops off the strawberries (be sure to wash them first!) and cut the banana into large chunks. Throw them in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
Taste the mixture to see if any sweetener is needed. If the fruit was ripe, you shouldn't have to add anything. But if the berries were a little tart, stir in honey or agave nectar to taste.
You can put the mixture through a fine mesh sieve if you want to remove the seeds, but it's really not necessary.
Pour the fruit mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet that's been coated in cooking spray.
Use a spatula to spread the strawberry banana puree so it covers the baking sheet evenly. This might take a little time, but it's an important step! Place baking sheet on the center rack of the oven.
Because fruit varies in water content and ovens vary in how they cook, I can't tell you exactly how long the fruit leather will need to bake. This particular batch took 2 ½ hours, which seems to be about the norm for my oven.
Note that my fruit leather is thinner than many other recipes, which is why it takes less time. I like it this way!
You want the leather to be pliable, but not wet; you should be able to touch the fruit leather without leaving an indentation.
You may notice the edges of the fruit leather are done before the center, particularly if the puree wasn't spread evenly on the baking sheet before going into the oven. That's okay! Just cut the edges off and return the fruit leather to the oven until the rest of it is done.
Once the fruit leather is done baking, cut it into strips or shapes using a pizza cutter, knife, or kitchen shears and when it's cooled completely, wrap or roll in plastic wrap or wax paper.
We usually eat ours within a day or two, but according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, it will last up to 1 month when wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature or 1 year in the freezer.
Now wasn't that easy? I told you it was!
Ingredients
- 2 cups strawberries cleaned
- 1 banana
- agave syrup or honey optional for sweetening
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 175ºF.
- Cut the tops off the strawberries and cut the banana into large chunks. Throw them in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
- Taste the mixture to see if any sweetener is needed. If the berries were a little tart, stir in honey or agave nectar to taste.
- Note: You can put the mixture through a fine mesh sieve if you want to remove the seeds, but it’s really not necessary.
- Pour the fruit mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet that’s been coated in cooking spray.
- Use a spatula to spread the strawberry banana puree so it covers the baking sheet evenly. This might take a little time, but it’s an important step! Place baking sheet on the center rack of the oven.
- Because fruit varies in water content and ovens vary in how they cook, I can’t tell you exactly how long the fruit leather will need to bake. This particular batch took 2 ½ hours, which seems to be about the norm for my oven.
- You want the leather to be pliable, but not wet; you should be able to touch the fruit leather without leaving an indentation.
- You may notice the edges of the fruit leather are done before the center, particularly if the puree wasn’t spread evenly on the baking sheet before going into the oven. That’s okay! Just cut the edges off and return the fruit leather to the oven until the rest of it is done.
- Once the fruit leather is done baking, cut it into strips or shapes using a pizza cutter, knife, or kitchen shears and when it’s cooled completely, wrap or roll in plastic wrap or wax paper.
Bridget says
Okay what do I bake it on? Sorry, totally skimmed through and I could not find it! Definitely trying it out tomorrow once I get the heating temperature(:
Kiersten says
It's in the post--175 degrees. 🙂
Liza says
My grandmother and I tried this, plus another recipe (strawberry fruit leather) on a different site, and it just came out all thin and...breakable. It also had some sort of burnt taste. Is there some sort of trick we've missed?
Kiersten says
I'm not sure what happened; it sounds like your oven must be running hot because that definitely sounds like overcooked fruit leather. You'll probably need to either bake at a lower temperature or bake for less time.
Harriet D. says
I tried this recipe today... it didn't work out for me... it looked a lot like your picture, but it took about 5 hours total, and it just didn't taste that good... the fruit I used tasted nice, but I planned to give the leather to someone as a gift, and I couldn't bring myself to give this. Oh well.
Kiersten says
I'm sorry the recipe didn't work out for you! You may like a more traditional fruit leather recipe instead.
[email protected] says
Just awesome! So delicious and easy. Thank you! A fruity chewy treat for my kids who are allergic to food dye.
Kiersten Frase says
Thanks for your comment--I'm glad your kids enjoyed it! 🙂
Joy says
Hi Kiersten,
I really like the idea of making our own fruit leather and knowing exactly what's in it. Unfortunately, this took more like 7 hours to make; I guess mine was more watery. Well, it still tastes great, just not as energy efficient as I would like. Maybe a dehydrator would be more efficient.
Thank you!
Kiersten Frase says
I'm sorry it took so long for you! I've had the time vary by an hour or two depending on the amount of liquid in the fruit, but I've never had it take that much time to dry out...
Claire says
Hi Kiersten. I'm assuming (unfortunately for me too late) that you are referring to 175 degrees F and not C? I did the latter, as I'm in Australia and we work in Celcius, and ended up with burnt fruit leather. Would you consider clarifying within the recipe so the same doesn't happen to anyone else? Thank you 🙂
Kiersten Frase says
I do that on my recipes now, but with hundreds of recipes on my site, I couldn't go back and update all of the old ones! But I'll change this one - I'm so sorry that you ended up burning your fruit leather! 🙁
karen says
Hi Kiersten,
Could you also state what size pan you use and whether or not your oven is convection. These 2 things will make a huge difference to the cooking time. Thanks.
Nicole says
Do you know about how many calories Each piece is?
Dana Raidt says
Hi Nicole, we don't calculate calories for our recipes since there are so many variations you could make, and different packaged products will also change the calorie count. You can plug the ingredients in here and get a rough idea, though!