Homemade Fruit Leather

As you know I am part of a produce coop, well two actually, so with that I seem to have an overabundance of apples. I wanted to do something different with them. Something healthy (besides eating them raw cause quite frankly I was over apples this week). There is a really cool blog my sister told me about where this woman basically takes anything you can buy in a package and makes it from scratch. Anyway, she made fruit leather and I wanted to give it a try. Fruit leather is basically just dried fruit (fruit roll ups but with actual fruit LOL). All I did was cut up all the apples I had (2 bags), cored them (did not peel them), put a little water in the bottom of a pot, covered and cooked down. You can peel them if you have nothing better to do but I was too lazy. When they are cooked down I pureed them and spread it on a half sheet pan with oiled parchment paper. This is where it got a little funky. According to the website, she had you cooking it for 10-18 hours on the lowest temp setting in the oven. I had my oven on 170 degrees, checked it in 4 1/2 hours and it was done. Basically it just has to be dry. Maybe I spread mine so thin that it didn't take so long, not sure. My advice to you is to check it after a few hours. I am about to try making some more but this time add a little grape concentrate for a different flavor. Oh, the first time I made it I did add some cinnamon to it, but that was it! Definitely give this a try, my kids LOVED it!!

Resources:
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/