Homemade Fruit Roll-Ups

I am not attempting to reinvent the wheel with this recipe, I mean homemade fruit strips have been done; in fact it was on pinterest that piqued my interest in the first place. I have been trying to come up with some ideas for a treat table at my sons up-coming birthday party and these seemed like the perfect addition.

They are a bit finicky to make as I found out, so I wanted to share with you the things I learned using the oven (I do not have a dehydrator)

• Having the puree evenly spread out is very important, otherwise there will be brittle crispy spots and other spots that are not fully dehydrated

• I found in my first 2 batches, one side of the pan was too dry and brittle compared to the other side; turning my pan half way through cooking helped with this.

• I got the best results when I took them out while still a little bit tacky and not completely smooth.

• Opening the oven a crack for a while to let some of the moisture out, sped up the process (you can see all of the evaporation coming out of the stovetop vent)

• It is important to roll up and store right away, as it seemed to get brittle quickly in the air.

• Do not add refined sugar…why make sweet fruit unhealthy?

• Do not use plastic cling wrap on your tray…It was like a 4 alarm fire going off in my head when I saw this in the link above…don’t cook with plastic of any kind. Bleach free parchment paper seems like a better choice.

All in all this is a super easy thing to do if you are just hanging out in the house for the day, or in the evening before bed, as it takes about 4 hours. The kids LOVE this stuff…I have made 6 batches. Ainnsley had been bugging me to buy Fruit Roll Ups for her lunch…ick! These are much better!

P.S. If you happen to make a crispy batch or 2…don’t fret! we called them fruit chips and the kids still ate them

Blueberry Fruit Strips

2 cups organic blueberries (frozen or fresh)

3tbsp pure maple syrup

or……..

Mango Fruit Strips
2.5 cups diced frozen mango (cut the frozen chunks up smaller)
3tbsp pure maple syrup
2tbsp water

Preheat oven to 170F (or lowest)

Place the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil for a few minutes until blueberries are soft and coming apart or Mango is soft and smooshy (like making jam). Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool. Pour mixture into a food processor/blender and puree smooth.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the puree evenly covering the tray.

 Place the tray on the middle rack for 3-5 hours, turning the tray half way through, and allowing the oven to vent occasionally by propping the door open slightly. (The blueberry dried faster than the mango, your timing will depend on thickness of puree)

Immediately cut into strips with a pizza slice roller. Then set each strip on a fresh strip of parchment paper and roll, secure the roll with string, and store in a sealed container.