How to Make Fruit Leather:

You may have tackled canning and jamming when it comes to fruit preserving techniques - but how about turning your excess seasonal fruit into a truly spectacular snack, like fruit leather?

Yes, we're talking pliable, rollable, chewy fruit packed heathy snacks consisting of tempting sheets of your favourite berries or fruits ... resembling, well, leather, made of fruit.

Roll up your fruit leather and put it in your lunchbox, wind it up and take it on a hike, mix it up and create your own pick and mix and personalise your adult/child snack time with homemade goodness.

Once you've got the method sorted, you can perfect your favourite fruit leather combinations, texture and even colour.

How to Make Fruit Leather

Making fruit leather is simple, although be warned the cooking time will require patience, at somewhere between 6 and 12 hours.

Method:

1. Slice up your chosen ripe fruit combo and blend raw, or cook down if you choose, until a viscous liquid. Sieve the mixture if you want a smoother finished texture.

At this point you can add in flavourings and sweeteners eg honey, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, fruit juice, oil, according to taste and depending on how sweet your fruit was to begin with. A squirt of lemon juice can help prevent oxidisation happening and altering the colour of your leather.

2. Spread the mixture onto a greaseproof lined oven tray to about a quarter of an inch in thickness and pop in the oven at about 140°F and sit back and wait. It's best to cook overnight when up to 12 hours.

3. Once cooked take the sheets of dehydrated fruit and cut it into thin strips that can be rolled and wrapped in greaseproof paper.

Try this recipe for plum leather from DaringGourmet.