Making fruit leather is easy and is a great food for school lunch boxes, hiking, long car trips and work snacks. These peach fruit leathers are also a lot cheaper than purchasing their ‘fake’ counterparts; which are loaded with chemicals and artificial colors cooked up in a lab. This recipe will make about 10 servings.

Peach Fruit Leather

//Ingredients//

5 cups peaches, washed, peeled, pitted, halved

1 – 2 tbsp of one of following: honey, maple syrup, agave syrup or rice syrup

1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

//Method//

  1. Cut the peaches into rough chunks. Place the chunks into a blender or food processor. Add the lemon juice and purée until it forms an even paste.
  2. Pour in the honey or syrup to sweeten to taste.
Dehydrator Method –

  1. Pour the purée into a dehydrator. The dehydrator should be pre-lined with plastic food wrap that is taped beneath the dehydrator to prevent it curling. Spread the purée evenly across the tray.
  2. Place the tray into the dehydrator and follow the instructions to dehydrate for about 6 – 8 hours. Check during the drying process to see how the texture is going. When the fruit leather feels dry to the touch on one side, turn it over and dry on the other side for another 1 – 2 hours.
Oven Method –

  1. Cook the mixture on medium heat until it is thick and holds against itself when a spoon is drawn through it.
  2. Spread the purée evenly over a freezer paper lined baking tray/sheet using a spatula.
  3. Put the tray into an oven preheated to 150ºF or the lowest setting  possible on your oven.
  4. Leave to dry over four – eight hours. Check every now and then and at the end of five hours to see if it has dried completely; if it separates easily from the freezer paper.
//Storage//

  1. Make the fruit leather into whatever shapes you like:
    • Strips – cut into strips, wrap in plastic food wrap
    • Roll up – roll into small pipes, wrap in plastic food wrap
    • Small squares – cut into small squares for neat little nibbles, wrap in plastic food wrap in small packages
  • To add more nutritional value, consider finely chopping some nuts to add to the fruit puree. Almonds with raspberries, cranberries, peaches, cherries … walnuts with apples, cranberries, pears … pecans with apples, bananas, blueberries, pumpkin …
  • For more adult-flavored fruit leathers, small amounts of fruit brandy or liqueurs (or nut liqueurs) can be added to the puree. Or, for a more subtle adult kick, reduce a decent red wine and add it to raspberry, strawberry, cherry, or pear purees. (To reduce a wine, simply boil it down to a concentrated syrup, stirring occasionally.) I’ve not tried it yet, but one can probably do the same thing with white wines — Chablis would be a nice addition to many fruit purees. (I don’t think most wines would combine well with acidic fruits, such as citrus and cranberry, as the flavors could compete. But I could be wrong.) Dry wines would probably work better with sweet fruits, and sweeter wines would complement more tart fruits.
  • Consider combining unflavored (or vanilla) yogurt with a fruit puree for an even more nutritious snack. This could take much longer to dry, depending upon how much yogurt you add. Storage is the same as for fruit leather. (The cookbook that comes with the American Harvest dehydrator has a recipe for yogurt leather — dehydrate it at 130 F for 10-14 hours.)