Fruit Leathers

[Wendy]

I am looking for good advice on making fruit leather. I took a bag of frozen berries, put them in Vitamix, and a little bit of water. Put on teflex trays. Some of the leather never dehyrdrated and some dehydrated to the point I couldn't peel it off.

Help!!

[Punky]

Hmmmmm...
I've only made banana fruit leathers (Allissa's recipe) and they
turned out great. So I haven't tried the frozen fruit yet, but it sounds
like either you didn't spread the batter evenly enough or the dehydrater
doesn't dry evenly. What kind of dehydrater do you have?
Can you rotate the trays if needed? I have a Excalebur and it dries pretty evenly. Maybe try again but don't add water to the frozen
fruit so they have a thicker more dense consistency. Just blend them
and put them in. Fruit leathers do take a long time to dehydrate as well.
Hope that helps.
Punky

[askcassyfirst]

You may want to add in some other fruit to the mix. I do berry leathers, but they don't dry very appetizing if I don't add bananas or apples to the mix. It is a textural thing.

I have a nesco deyhydrator, the model with the temp gauge and fan, and they come out just fine. If I were you I would just try mixing other fruit in. I think it has something to do with the type of fiber found in berries. They seem to be fiberous to me if I don't add at least a few bananas. I posted a pic the other day. Here is a link. http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1590&highlight=banana

I think for me it is an experimental thing...you will catch on after a few shots.

Cassy.:)

[Wendy]

Thanks for the advice. I have an Excalibur. I will try adding bananas later.

[Rawkinlocs]

Oh yeah Wendy...gotta have some kind of "base" from another fruit when dealing with high-water fruits like berries, watermelon or grapes. I wanted to make the kids some grape fruit leather and when I blended it...boy was it watery! So, I ended up having to add apples and I THINK I even added a little ground flax seed to it to thicken it up a bit and absorb some of the water. I didn't even have to add water to it as it produced it's own!

But yeah, I normally use apples or apples and pears as a base and then add the more "flavorful" fruits such as strawberry, blueberry, peach, etc.

My kids LOVED all that awful sour candy that's out now-a-days...so I often make them a sour fruit leather using Granny Smith Apples, lemon juice and maybe one sweeter apple so it's not TOO sour and sometimes I even "sneak" some celery in there ;) They LOVE it!

[Wendy]

Ok, that makes sense about the high water. Thanks for telling me!