Fruit leather - is it worth it?

Inspired by recipes all over the internet (aren't we all!), plus a glut of strawberries at the supermarket (A$1.50 a 250gm punnet), I had a go at fruit leather.

I cooked a punnet of strawberries with 2 red apples (peeled, cored, chopped), then pureed it.

I then spread it out in some silicone baking dishes (see below) to dry. And waited. And waited.

What I learnt:

1. I have the perfect dishes for making fruit leather. You don't need to line or grease the tins. It just peels off when dry. Eventually.


2. The most important thing is to get a thin, even layer, to speed drying.

3. You probably could dry it in your car, as some sites suggest. Pictures below of the trays on my hatchback's rear shelf, soon to sit in the sun. But the car will smell of fruit and you've got to keep the kids out!

4. The oven is in the end the best dryer you have. But using all that energy to make fruit leather sort of takes away from the wholesome, no preservative, environmentally consciousness of it all.

5. It tastes as good as anything you could buy, but I'm experiencing some resistance to eating in, on the basis that it took SO LONG to make!

Two apples and a punnet of strawberries....