Fruit roll ups are dried rolls of concentrated fruit puree, often seasoned with herbs and spices. Homemade fruit roll ups are healthy and a cost effective alternative of enjoying fruit rolls. As these roll-ups are shiny, hard, and more or less like leathery in appearance they are often referred as fruit leather. Fruit leather or roll-ups are pure fruit concentrates without any added sugar or anything that is artificial in origin. Even though they are readily available in stores, if you are a kitchen person and love experimenting with ingredients, try making these healthy and wonderful fruity snacks at home, especially loved by kids and admired by grownups.
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You can try making fruit roll ups at home with a wide variety of fruit combos, along with various herbs and spices as seasoning for flavor enhancement. You can even try garnishing them with mint or basil leaves for that extra zing and taste variation. It is good to try simple and easy recipes at home rather than getting ready-made food from stores. Anything that is made at home is hygienic with all nutrients intact since store bough items contain preservatives that maybe harmful for kids. So, if you want to get your kids indulge on healthy treats, try making these nutritive as well as tasty fruity snacks that they can munch on anytime.
The entire process of making fruit roll-ups is quite easy and can be even simpler than you can think off. All you require is a fresh supply of fresh fruits, you can even go with canned fruits, a blender, cling wraps or dehydrator sheets, oil spray.
Once you acquire these few essential things, just go through the following steps that will make your fruit roll-ups preparation a breeze:
1. Get some fresh or either canned fruit of your choice. If you are taking fresh fruits, take fruits that are ripe enough or somewhat overripe.
2. Clean the fruits by removing stems, scraping, or peeling. In case of lime and oranges, the zest can be left on.
3. Cut the fruits into slices and steam them for about 10 to 15 minutes. You can even omit steaming.
4. Throw in the fruit slices in the blender and pureed to form a smooth consistency. A little amount of fruit juice or even water can be added during blending if need be.
5. Though optional but you can add a pinch or 2 of seasoning and spices like cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, seeds of green cardamom, or even fresh mint or basil leaves to the pureed fruits.
6. If needed sugar or fruit juice can be added for some extra sweetness. Try adding some chopped nuts or grated coconut for taste and texture variation.
7. Spray the cling wrap or the dehydrator sheets with cooking spray. Now pour the fruit puree on the dehydrator sheet slightly tilting the sheet for even spread of the fruit puree without any holes or air bubbles.
8. Carefully place the dehydrator sheets in the dehydrator and let it dry completely till desired leathery consistency. If you are making roll-ups in the oven, preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. Cook the sheets in the oven for about 30 minutes, turn the oven off without opening the oven door and let the sheets inside the closed oven for about 8 hours or overnight.
9. Take out the sheets from the dehydrator or from the oven and check if roll-ups are done. To check for doneness, try peeling them from one edge. Carefully peel the roll-ups off the cooking sheets till they are still warm, place them gently on the butter paper, press slightly for even surface. Finally cut the roll-ups in strips and store in airtight containers.
You can store these fruit leathers at room temperature for a period of 1 month, for several months inside the refrigerator, and for an year or so if hygienically frozen in the freezer.
It is recommended to use the dehydrator for the drying as it speeds up the drying process thus keeping the nutrients of the fruits intact and preventing any over-drying of the fruits.
Eat Healthy! Stat Fit!