Fruit Leather: Preserving the Autumn Harvest

October 4, 2019

Back in August, I picked a bunch of berries up in Maine and pledged to try making fruit leather. Being that it's now fall and I'm on a food preservation "kick," I wanted to share the results of my experiment.

Cranberries and Bunch Berries at the top, Rosehips middle right, Blueberries bottom left. Ignore the Prickly Sarsaparilla (not good for you) middle left, and the Rock Tripe bottom right (not a berry! Hanging out in the freezer for a future post.)

As I reminder: I harvested just about a cup of blueberries, wild cranberries, bunch berries, and rose hips. Since that wasn't much, I supplemented the Maine fruit with apples fallen off a tree in my neighborhood in Boston, yielding about two cups of fruit.

Into the saucepan with about a quarter cup of water( to prevent burning). Along the way, I dumped in about a half cup of wine (because it just happened to be in my hand). Though the fruit was not sour, I also added about two tablespoons of maple syrup (because it seemed like a good idea).

This simmered for about 20 minutes, until the berries had softened. It then went into the blender and swirled until it was fairly smooth. I didn’t have the plastic wrap or parchment paper that other recipes recommend (here’s the one I was working from, though I didn't use the sugar or lemon--maple syrup and white wine instead). So I used wax paper sprayed very lightly with cooking spray, to keep the fruit from sticking to the pan.

The recipe suggests a cooking time of eight to twelve hours, which makes sense when you’re drying a large volume of fruit. But my paltry two cups, spread very thin, did not come any where near filling up my baking sheet. Dried at 200 degrees, it took only three hours.

Because it was so thin, it was less the texture of fruit leather, and more the texture of "sugar glass" you see on fancy desserts.

It may not look pretty, but let me tell you, the taste is incredible. I'm guessing the subtle floral notes came from the Rosehips, or maybe it was the generous splash of wine. Next time, I might try a combination of just rose hips and apples.

This product is way too good to use as a Fruit Rollups that you might put in your kid's lunchpail. I am saving it for the next time I make a really special chocolate dessert, to stick in the top like rose-colored sugar glass.