Turn Over-Ripe Fruit into Fruit Leather

Fruit leather is one of my favorite snacks, especially when I travel. I decided to make some for my upcoming trip, but unfortunately it was so good that I ate it all before I made it to the plane. They are extremely easy to make- the only ingredient is fruit that you were about to throw out anyway.

1) Put a thin layer of water in a pot on the stove just so that the bottom of the fruit doesn’t burn when you heat it. Peel (if necessary) and cut up the fruit and put it in the pot to heat. Make sure it doesn’t burn, and after a few minutes it should be soft enough to squish it up- I just mashed it with some random utensil I found while it was still in the pot. Make sure it is nice and smooth- mine looked like nectarine soup or baby food.

You can add sugar if you used bitter fruit, but I didn’t need to with mine. It was extremely sweet with just the natural sugar from the nectarines.

2) Line a cookie tray or something flat with plastic wrap and poor the fruit soup onto it. It should be fairly thin, around 1/8, give or take.

3) Let it dry all day or all night. If you do this during the day you can leave it in the sun under some kind of breathable cloth so the moisture can get out. If it is rainy or you make it at night, you can keep it in the oven for around 8 hours at 130 degrees Fahrenheit or until it is no longer sticky. I put mine in the ovens warming drawer, which I had never used before but it did the job perfectly.

Then, just peel it right off of the plastic wrap to cut it up and eat it, or roll up the wrap and store it in the fridge for later. Bon appetit!