Dehydrated Fruit and Vegetable Leathers and Chips

Children know leathers as fruit roll-ups they get at supermarkets and health food stores.  In the food dehydrating world, dried food purees are called "leathers"  And its not just kids that love these sweet treats.  Gardeners, chefs, outdoor enthusiasts etc. all appreciate the benefits of drying endless varieties of thick liquid concoctions and combination.  These lunchbox sweets, ready-to-eat fruit snacks and savory vegetable chips can be rehydrated into tasty soups and sauces.  Spaghetti sauce, yogurt, soups, stews, refried beans, ketchup tomato paste and thick soups like a pea soup, and many more things can be dried on the solid plastic fruit leather sheets that come with all our dehydrators that we carry.  Leathers can vary from making a simple applesauce leather to making fancy dried crackers.  You can dry some really way-out foods like blue cheese, sauerkraut, pickles, of even fat-free sour cream. 

Leathers Are REALLY Easy to Make:  Here are some great tips to insure success:

1. Always put a light coating of oil or spray your fruit leather sheets with a non-stick coating like our Vegelene.  Oil prevents purees from sticking to the leather sheets and will make it easier to peel off the finished product.

2. You can make leathers from fresh, canned, or frozen fruits and vegetables, singly or in combinations.  The amount of pectin in a particular fruit or vegetable will determine if it will bond together and make a smooth sheet.  Keep in mind that unripe fruit usually has more pectin than fully ripe fruit.  Apples, apricots, blackberries (we have lots growing wild here) cranberries, currants, figs, grapes, peaches and pears are all good choices.  Cherries, citrus, melons, raspberries and strawberries as well as most vegetables, are low in pectin.  A quick and easy solution when making fruit leathers with these fruits and with all vegetables it to mix equal parts of the high-pectin foods with the low-pectin foods.

3.  Puree the foods in a good blender.  If the food you are trying to puree is tough or becomes too thick, (you can tell as your blender will slow down or may not even be able to grind it all at one time, start with a little of the food first and gradually add more as you go.  The puree ideally should be an applesauce consistency.

4.  Some foods will darken as they dry.  You can keep the colour in the dried leathers by adding pineapple or lemon juice to the puree, or peel the fruits before blending as skin will darken it.  You could also blanch or cook the food first before making the puree or even a add a little jello powder or Kool-Aid powder to brighten it.

5.  Taste the purees before drying.  Remember that the flavours and sugars concentrate as they dry so they leathers or flakes will turn out sweeter or stronger than the puree.

6.  The drying time for leather will depend on how thick you have made them, the temperature of your dryer (and power of the fan), the consistency of the food and the sugar content.  A 15 inch round sheet from our American Harvest dryer will hold about 3 cups of puree and spread 1/4 inch thick will take about 8 hours at 135 degrees F..  If you lower the temperature to 110 degrees it can take 12 or more hours.

Be Creative with your Fruit Leathers- You can make a CARMEL APPLE FRUIT LEATHER  by drying an applesauce leather and then spoon on softened melted carmels on top of it and roll it up like a jelly-roll , wrap it in saran, and chill it.  Slice the roll into 1/4 rounds to serve. YUM! 

Make a FRUIT AND YOGURT LEATHER by puree 2 cups of fruit like apricots and adding 1 cup of plain yogurt, a tsp. of lemon juicer, 1/4 cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. of allspice and 1 Tbsp. of almond powder (finely blended almonds)

SEEDY APPLESAUCE LEATHER - from Food Drying with an Attitude- This treat is quite tasty and a less expensive alternative to store-bought health food bars

1 tsp. black sesame seeds

Put water and molasses in a saucepan.  Stir until warm and blended.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Stir well.  Spread on oiled leather sheets and dry at 110 to 135 degrees F.

Click here for more great dehydrating Tips and Recipes

Fruit and Vegetable Chips - Making food chips can be as simple as marinating slices of vegetables in a commercial salad dressing or inventing your own homemade marinade.  Most of the time, young, tender vegetable with vibrant colours and firm textures.  Carrots, kohlrabi, peppers, parsnips, turnips, squash and firm tomatoes are used to make chips and even the un-wanted vegetable the giant zucchini can also be used.  A potato peeler can be used to slice the vegetables thin.  Experiment with marinating vegetable slices in lemon juice, orange juice, maple syrup, salad dressing, tamari sauce, Braggs liquid Aminos, or various flavours of oil.  Spice the marinade with herbs and spices like ginger, cayenne, garlic or curry powder. 

Simple slice up your fruit or vegetables place it in the desired marinade for an hour or more.  Drain and dry on the mesh trays in the dehydrator at 110 to 135 degrees F. until crisp.  Chips are best when they are sliced thin, dried until crisp and then stored in air-tight containers.  Keep them stored away from air because they easily pick up moisture. 

Flavoured dried chips are healthy snacks.  Serve them with a dip instead of crackers or crush them into bacon-like bits and try them sprinkled on cooked pasta or fresh salads for a little extra zip.

Our next post will be on drying tomatoes in various ways.  We have a bumper crop this year!