Homemade Fruit Leather FAIL

I have been buying fruit leather in the commissary’s produce section for the past few weeks.  The kids have loved every flavor I’ve given them – even mango and apricot flavors.

So when I found a recipe online for making homemade fruit leather in the oven, I was really excited.

Since the recipe said that the leather needed to stay in the oven for 8-10 hours, and we’re stuck at home with pink eye again, today seemed like the perfect fruit leather making day.

The kids put 4 cups of fruit (kiwis and strawberries), 1/2 cup water, and 2 tablespoons of sugar in the blender and revved it up.

I brought the fruit mixture to a boil on the stove, let it simmer for 10 minutes, divided the mixture between two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, and stuck them in the oven.

 

I had run into a problem though.  The recipe I was using said to set the oven to 140 degrees, but the lowest setting on our oven is 170 degrees.  To try remedy this, I left the oven door cracked.

3 1/2 hour later, the leather was done.  Actually overdone.

I had wanted to cut the sheets to make fruit by the foot type snacks, but the leather just kind of broke apart.  I’m not sure if I left it in the oven too long, if it was the oven temperature causing the problem, or if I spread the fruit too thin.

The kids were still excited about trying it though.

Trenton thought it looked spicy (I should have used a strainer to get the seeds out), but he tried it anyway.

He was not a fan.  Neither was his little sister.

I think we’ll be sticking with store bought fruit leather from now on!