How to Make Homemade DIY Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit Leather – Easy Recipe
Fruit roll-ups or fruit leather is an awesome snack for kids! But we either find 2 major problems…. many fruits roll-ups or leather contain food dyes and high fructose corn syrup, to name two ingredients that our family tries to avoid…. or you try to buy natural fruit roll-ups or fruit leather and they are so incredibly expensive.
So we learned a long time ago how to make our own. It is cheaper, especially when you can make it with seasonal fruits, and quite easy. In fact, before we learned this a while back, we hadn’t realized just how incredibly simple this is! This is just yet another recipe to add to our collection of recipes to replace a store-bought product!
You can follow this same recipe for pretty much any fruit (except citrus – we haven’t tried that)! We are going to demonstrate with our latest batch from the cheap strawberries and blueberries that we grabbed in season recently.
Strawberry fruit roll-ups are a favorite flavor in our house. Which is a good thing as this is also the most popular. I made strawberry, blueberry and a mixture of strawberry/blueberry in this round of fruit roll-ups.
Recipe for Homemade Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit Leather
Ingredients:
- 3 Cups of Fresh Fruit
- 1 TBSP of Honey (we use local raw honey)
*If this is for pregnant mothers or infants, we would recommend using sugar or maple syrup instead of honey.
How to Make:
- Wash the fruit, cut out stems, seeds, etc.
- Stick in a blender or food processor
- Then add your sweetener
- Blend until it is slushy like.
- Line your pan(s) with parchment paper. You will need to use parchment paper. It will not work with wax paper, or right on the pan. Sorry! Shortcuts here means your batch is ruined.
- Pour the slushy fruit mixture right onto the pan of parchment paper.
- Then, using a rubber spatula, spread the mixture evenly and push the mixture to the edges. Make as smooth as possible. It’s important to make sure that the center does not “pool” with the mixture and the edges be “thin.” If this is the case, the edges will over-crisp while the center stays soft.
- Bake/dry out in a 200 degree oven for 2-4 hours. You will know it is done when you touch it and it does not stick to you, but is “leather” like.
- The reason why the time is so broad is because each oven and each fruit will take a different amount of time. In some cases, some fruits may be thicker and we have found that turning up the oven to 225 or 250 was needed. Just check on it periodically.
- Then, pull it out of the oven, you can let it cool in the pan overnight or take it out and let it set on the parchment paper overnight.
- The next day, you will see a nice leathery fruit feel and it will even lift easily from the parchment paper.
- Cut the fruit roll-ups and fruit leather into strips.
Strawberry sheet of fruit leather
Strawberry, Blueberry and Mixed Berry Leather Strips
- Then “roll it up” for fruit leather, or cut strips in half for fruit leather. We store ours in the fridge and they stay for a couple of weeks.
Yummy! They slide right off the paper, just like the classic fruit roll-ups!
They are great snack additions to our homemade, allergy-friendly Trail Mix recipe too!
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Rachel
Just want to get some clarification. Under the step when you discuss putting the mixture it seems that you do NOT want it to pool in the middle and be thin on the edge based upon the following comment. However in the statement it says to make sure it DOES pool in the center and is thin on the edges.
Alex
Oh, whoops! I will check that. No, you don’t want it to pool. It needs to be as even as possible. 🙂 I will check the typo and get it fixed. Thanks for the head’s up!
Leslie
Can you use frozen berries. I have so many that I froze after picking!!
Alex
Hi Leslie,
It would have added water content, but it may evaporate during the low baking time. It would probably need to be cooked longer. I have used just whatever fresh fruit we have at the time, but I do have a lot of frozen blueberries, apricots and peaches that I might test this out on too! I will let you know my results! Thanks for asking!
Cat
Hi!
Curious on how ut went? Frozen berries is okay?
Leslie F.
I was wondering if you can leave the sweetener out (some fruit is sweet enough), or is the sweetener used as a binding agent?
Alex
Hi Leslie,
I have heard of others doing it, but this process can be a bit testy and so you don’t want to waste a batch either. However, it probably will be fine, but maybe not quite as much of a true fruit leather.
sandi y
I’ve tried it both with and without the honey…the honey definitely is the binder lol
Jennifer
Can you use frozen fruit? or would that add water that might be undesireable?
Alex
Hi Jennifer,
I will just give you the same answer as Leslie above who asked a similar question. 🙂
It would have added water content, but it may evaporate during the low baking time. It would probably need to be cooked longer. I have used just whatever fresh fruit we have at the time, but I do have a lot of frozen blueberries, apricots and peaches that I might test this out on too! I will let you know my results! Thanks for asking!
JUly
Are you using °F or °C?
Ruth
Can this be done in a dehydrator ??
Jenna
I make mine in the dehydrator and it works very well. I’m also able to set it at a lower temperature (for longer time ) to keep the living enzymes.
Angela
Can you use a Vitamix to mix the mixture?
Bryana
Any news on how it turned out with frozen fruit???
Susan
I was wondering if you or anyone else has tried apples & had any suggestions with their results? Ours are about ripe & I was wanting to try something new to use them up. Thanks. Also curious about sweet potatoes. I think I’ll try this with those also this fall when we dig them.
LIsa
Ive got a recipe using apples in my dehydration book. It says to leave skin on. Add 1 tbs Of corn powder, 1 Tbs Lemon juice, 1 tbs honey. Bring to boil in sauce pan and puree. Pour onto paraflexx or parchment and spread evenly then bake or dehydrate.
Laura McCoy
How do you store them and for how long?
Cassie
I store them in the fridge and have had them in there 3+ weeks!
Tiffany Dennis
Are they chewy like roll ups or tough like taffy?
Chantel Zemp
I have made two batches of strawberry and they both burned. Could you give me an estimate as to how much you’re putting in the pan?
Lisa
4 c of fruit
Becky
I never add sugar or honey. I just use fruit and a little water so it makes a thick slurry. I’ve never had a problem with it binding. Fruit is full of sugar, especially when dried, so I don’t want any extra sugar for us or our kids (honey is even worse because it’s 70% fructose!). I use apples, pears, mango, strawberries, any kind of fruit. I put in a dehydrator on low on silicone trays and it’s done in less than 24 hours.
Jeanie
I do this for our peaches. I add either lemon juice or Fruit Fresh to prevent it from turning yucky color. More importantly I put the cookie sheets in the car facing the sun and let them dry that way. Easier, cheaper and keeps the house cooler.
Lisa
Wow thats awesome and saving electricity too
Stefanie
I tried it with mixed berries (frozen) and a bit of honey. I made one pan and dried it in the oven by 200°C. But unfortunately it was all burnt after 20 minutes only! Something went wrong 🙁
Lisa
Technically they are supposed to be made in a dehydrator. Not the oven. Though sometimes it can work in the oven. The oven gets way too hot. Fruit leathers do best at 135°F over longer hours to maintain the enzymes and such. If you want to try doing in car window in Sun as someone said above or put the oven as low as it’ll go and crack the oven door open an inch or two. The fruit mix should be spread out pretty think 1/8-1/4”.
csgo websites to buy skins
Thanks meant for offering such superb subject material
Mike Tatum
I followed the instructions exactly in every way, however, my fruit leather bonded to the parchment paper and would not peel off – Yes, the fruit leather and parchment paper became ONE. What a waste of time and energy! What happened?
Cassie
Hmmm….Was your fruit already a high fructose fruit? If so, you my want to use less honey. I have never had that happen, even with higher natural fructose fruits. If you use too much honey or perhaps cook/dry too long in the oven, I could see that happening. It shouldn’t do it just sitting on the parchment air drying or cooling. Finally, I know it’s a dumb question, but it is parchment paper and not wax paper? It would stick to wax paper.
Linda
THANKS for these recipes and the helpful hints from everyone…Going to get some fresh peaches and I’ve got lots of fruit frozen to empty out of my freezer…is there a way to keep it rolled up, put in ziplock freezer bags, and then stored in five gallon buckets for a long period of time…for storage??