Easy Homemade Nutrition Packed Wild Blueberry Fruit Leathers
Fruit leathers or fruit roll-ups are universally loved by kids—but a lot of parents don’t love what’s in the boxed kind, like artificial flavors, oils and multiple kinds of synthetic food dyes.
Luckily, making your own fruit leathers is fun and easy—and since you control what goes in them, you can make sure to pack them with nutrition. Wild Blueberries, with their intense blueberry flavor and double the antioxidant power of regular blueberries, are the perfect star ingredient. You can always have this great ingredient on hand because frozen fresh Wild Blueberries are available year-round in the freezer section of your store (right alongside the other frozen fruit).
More good news: You don’t need a fancy food dehydrator to make fruit leather. All you need is an oven—and a few hours. Here are some pointers to help you get started:
1. Use a silicone baking mat. Some recipes call for using parchment in its place, but a silicone mat works best.
2. Check frequently. Oven temperatures vary and dehydrating isn’t an exact science, so you’ll want to take frequent peeks at your fruit leather. If it comes off on your finger when you touch it lightly, it’s not done yet.
3. Remove the edges as it dries. Your fruit leather will dry from the edges inward. So when the edges are dry, remove the baking sheet from the oven, cut the edges off into strips (a pizza cutter works best) and set those aside, then return the sheet to the oven to continue baking.
4. Sweeten to taste. You can make all-fruit leathers without added sweetener or you can add some honey or granulated sugar for more sweetness. Do what you prefer—it won’t affect the recipe or baking time.
Your kids will love seeing frozen fruit transformed into a chewy, sweet fruit leather. And you’ll love that they’re snacking on a homemade treat made with one of North America’s original superfoods instead of something highly-processed and packaged. So whip some up and add this special treat to your child’s lunchbox this month or as serve these as a fun afterschool snack.
