Homemade Fruit Leather – Healthy Snacks for Kids Recipes
Fresh blueberries, strawberries and organic apple juice make up this great healthy snack. Roll up your homemade fruit leathers and add them to lunch boxes or treat your kids to an after-school snack! The kids will love them and you'll love that there's nothing artificial - no dyes, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup!
The school year is almost upon us. can you believe it? This summer has absolutely F-L-O-W-N! Every year time seems to go faster and faster, doesn't it? And it's funny because the kids keep getting older, but I know I don't. How about you? 😉
I love making this fruit leather because it's for the kid in all of us. It reminds me of being younger and it's still so much fun to eat! I love tearing it off the paper, rolling it up and popping it into my mouth. I love it even more because it's so much healthier for us than the stuff we buy in the store. There isn't anything artificial, fake or enhanced with this stuff - just pure goodness that you'll feel great about giving to your family! That is, if you don't eat it all like I ate 3/4 of it before I allowed the family to sample it.
Homemade Fruit Leather Snack Recipe
Serves 8
I found the original recipe here at Free Spirit Eater. I've made it before and thought it was too tart, so I used organic apple juice this time instead of pomegranate and thought it turned out perfectly!
Ingredients for Homemade Fruit Leather
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
- 1 cup organic apple juice
- 1 cup water
- juice of 1/2 of a lemon
Making your Homemade Fruit Leather
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees F.
- Prepare a rimmed baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
- In a large saucepan, combine blueberries, strawberries, apple juice, and water. Bring to boil over high heat and mash the fruit as it cooks for 10 - 15 minutes.
- Reduce heat to medium - low. Cook for another 10 - 15 minutes, until mixture thickens and resembles a thick syrup in consistency. Be sure that it doesn't burn while cooking.
- Remove from heat and stir in the fresh lemon juice.
- Use a hand blender and puree until smooth. A standing blender can be used, but be extremely careful when blending hot contents as you can blow the lid off if precautions aren’t taken. That would make for one messy kitchen!
- Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet and spread evenly with a spatula until it is approximately 1/8-inch thick. If it is thicker than this, it will need to bake longer, so a second lined baking sheet may be needed.
- Bake for 5-6 hours. The leather will be done when it is set and dry. You'll know because it will no longer appear wet in spots.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut into strips 1 1/2 - 2 inches thick.
- Roll up in the parchment and store in a tightly covered container.
Send the kids off to school with goodness in their lunch boxes that you'll feel good about!
What's your go-to snack for busy school days?
Lynne Feifer
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