Fruit Leather

I got this idea a few years back from Bob Flowerdew’s book Grow your own Eat your own. Its definitely a good and easy way to preserve fruit for healthy winter eating but you really need a warm airy place to dry it. This year’s first batch was made in the last cold, wet spell and the Rayburn was chuntering for a couple of days. Before I had the Rayburn I put the trays very near the Jotul log burner. For me the heat has “free” or else it not worth the cost of running an oven. The taste is very strong and not too sweet as there is no added sugar in the processing.

It a very simple idea. Cook up a large pan full of fruit with about a quarter of pan of water. I always use good flavoured sweet apples as the main ingredient and add a small quantity of flavouring fruit such as raspberries or blackcurrant or strawberry and this year I going to try quince. The apples aren’t peeled as they will be sieved.

When the fruit is really soft, leave it to cool a bit and then sieve out the bits and return to a pan.

Reduce gently to make a very thick puree. Again I have found the gentle heat of the Rayburn ideal for this. When it is really thick it holds its shape when you push it around.

Pour it onto trays. I find the baking trays dry much quicker. I keep it to 3 – 4mm thick as it dries quickly with little worry and effort. You could go thicker if you have a good warm airy place and can keep an eye on it. Anyway eventually it drys into a shinny leathery sheet like the picture. This may take several days.

Coat with some fine sugar to stop it sticking when you cut it up into strips and put it into jars. The thin stuff does keep very well (except it gets eaten so I only know it will last 6 months if one pot is hidden!!)

This also works very well done in a dehydrator.