How To Make Plum Fruit Leather

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This is a How-To for Fruit Leather. I can’t call something with just 2 ingredients a recipe. It’s so easy. Funny enough, this was actually the result of a blunder.

My mom cuts her gazillions of plums in half and dries them in the sun to make prunes. She starts off by baking them on low heat for a short time. That short time turned into a long time, which “ruined” a huge batch of plums. Mom decided to try something new. I know it’s not an original concept but she really did discover how to make fruit leather by mistake. It was a hit, especially with the kiddos! We re-created it again with our own plums.

Update: this year we made apricot fruit leather and it was amazing and we documented the process along with a sunshine drying method here. 

Ingredients for Plumb Fruit Leather:

7 lb plums (around 5 quarts bowl)
3/4 cup granulated sugar

How to Make Plum Fruit Leather Rolls:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Wash, cut in half and pit the plums.

2. Lay halved plums out on rimmed cookie sheets with cut side up and place in the oven for 20 min. If plums are smaller in size, set a timer for 15 min and check every 5 minutes to avoid burning the plums.

3. After 20 minutes, remove plums from the oven and let them cool.

4. Using blade attachment in the food processor, blend plums until smooth and pour finished mixture into a large bowl.

5. Add 3/4 cup of granulated white sugar to blended plums and stir well. Add more sugar to taste if needed.

6. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper covering the walls of the baking sheet as well. Pour the purée into the lined baking sheets to about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. We filled 3 baking dishes that fit on 2 levels in the oven together.

7. Let dry in the oven for as long as it takes for the purée to dry out and form fruit leather, about 6-8 hours, more or less depending on the thickness of your fruit leather.

There are several ways to dry this out:

(1). If your oven has a low heat setting at 140˚ F: Heat the oven to low 140°F. Place the baking sheets with purée in the oven on the two racks placed as much in the center as possible.

(2) Our oven preheats to 170˚ F so we kept the oven door slightly open by putting a wooden spoon in the door. If you have a convection setting available, use it to speed up the process.

(3) If you don’t want to prop the oven door open and your lowest setting is 170˚ F, preheat to 170˚ F, then turn the oven off and leave the door closed completely and reheat it after an hour; repeat as necessary until it dries out.

(4) My mom let  it dry in the sun for 2 days. You may also use a food dehydrator.

Keep in mind, the goal is for the fruit leather to dry out, not cook. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky and has a smooth surface.

8. When the fruit leather is ready, you can use a pizza cutter to cut fruit leather into srips. To store it, roll it in its parchment paper, put it in an airtight container or ziploc bag and store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Have you tried fruit leather with any other fruit?

How to Make Plum Fruit Leather

Author: Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 8 hours hrs

Total Time: 8 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

• Preheat oven to 400° F.

• Wash, cut in half and pit the plums. Lay halved plums out on rimmed cookie sheets with cut side up and place in the oven for 20 min. Check every 5 minutes to avoid burning the plums.

• After 20 minutes, remove plums from the oven and let them cool. Using blade attachment in the food processor, blend plums until smooth and pour finished mixture into a large bowl.

• Add 3/4 cup sugar to blended plums and stir well. Add more sugar to taste if needed. Than line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper covering the walls of the baking sheet as well. Pour the purée in to about an 1/8″ to 1/4″ thickness.

• Let dry in the oven for as long as it takes for the purée to dry out and form fruit leather, about 6-8 hours, more or less depending on the thickness of your fruit leather.

There are several ways to dry this out:

• Heat the oven to low 140°F. Place the baking sheets with purée in the oven on the two racks placed as much in the center as possible.

• If the lowest setting on the oven is 170°F, than preheat to 170°. Turn the oven off and leave the door closed completely and reheat it after an hour; repeat as necessary until it dries out. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky and has a smooth surface.

Note: Please don’t use wax paper, it sticks to the fruit leather.