Homemade Fruit Leather

By Maria Lichty

Updated March 26, 2019

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Last week, I tweeted that I was making homemade fruit leather. Well, I guess lots of people want to know how to make homemade fruit leather because I received several tweets and emails asking for the recipe. So today, I am sharing a simple recipe on how to make homemade fruit leather or fruit roll-ups. It is the same recipe-the only difference is if you roll up the final product up or cut into squares:)

Fruit leather can be pricey to buy at the store, but making it at home is cheaper and so easy. I love making it because I feel all domestic. Plus, I love eating it! It is a great healthy snack!

We are still swimming in peaches so I made homemade peach fruit leather, but you can use any fruit you like. Strawberry and raspberry are two of our other favorite fruit flavors. You can also mix fruits! Peach raspberry fruit leather is delish! I try to use whatever fruits are in season.

To make peach fruit leather, I removed the skins and pits of the peaches and gave them a rough chop. I threw them in my Blendtec blender and added a little agave. Our peaches were ripe and super juicy so they only needed a little bit of agave. Taste your fruit and add sweetener according to the sweetness of the fruit. You can also use honey or granulated sugar.

Blend the fruit until smooth. Pour the fruit mixture onto a baking sheet that has been lined with a Silpat and smooth with a spatula. If you don’t have a Silpat, you can use parchment paper or plastic wrap, but Silpats work the best, in my opinion:)

Put the baking sheet in the oven for 6-8 hours, or until the fruit leather is set and the center is not tacky. Your house will smell delicious while the fruit leather is drying in the oven.

When the fruit leather is finished, pull it out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Peel back the fruit leather from the Silpat baking mat. It should peel right off. You can cut the fruit leather into squares or long strips if you want to make fruit-roll ups. If you want to make fruit roll-ups, cut a long strip of parchment paper and roll the fruit leather up! It’s that easy!

Store the fruit leather and fruit roll-ups in an air-tight container for up to a month. We always eat it pretty quickly:) You can make a few pans at once. We have double ovens and sometimes I will do four pans at the same time. We love homemade fruit leather.

Give Homemade Fruit Leather a go! It is easy and is a great healthy snack for road trips, lunch boxes, hikes, and every day snacking. Enjoy!

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Vegetarian

Homemade Fruit Leather

Homemade fruit leather is so easy to make and is a great healthy snack! I used peaches for this recipe, but feel free to use your favorite fruit. Strawberries and raspberries are my other favorite fruits to use.
4.79 from 23 votes
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Servings 1 pan fruit leather-about 10 fruit roll-ups

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups ripe chopped fruit I used peaches this time
  • Sweetener to taste (I use honey or maple syrup)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 150 degrees F or the lowest temperature your oven will go. Line a 11 x 17 baking sheet with a Silpat baking mat. Set aside.
  • Puree the peaches and sweetener of your choice in a blender or food processor until smooth. Pour fruit mixture onto prepared baking sheet and spread to about a 1/8″ thick. I always pound the baking sheet on the counter a few times to make sure the fruit mixture is evenly distributed.
  • Place baking sheet in the oven and bake for 6-8 hours, until pan is set and the center is not tacky. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Gently peel off the fruit leather from the Silpat. Cut into squares or strips using a pizza cutter, knife, or scissors. If you want to make fruit roll-ups, roll the strips in parchment paper. Store in an air-tight container.
  • Note-if you don't have a Silpat baking mat, you can line the baking sheet with plastic wrap or parchment paper. The plastic wrap will not melt in the oven because the temperature is so low. I prefer to use a Silpat though. Get creative and use your favorite fruits, you can also mix fruits! The fruit leather will keep up to a month in an air-tight container.

Have you tried this recipe?

Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod

 

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Maria

I'm Maria and my husband is Josh. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. We love sitting around the table with good food, good conversation, and good friends and family! Our kitchen is always open!
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Vegetarian Kid Friendly Gluten-Free Snack Vegan

4.79 from 23 votes (20 ratings without comment)

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  1. This post makes me want to dust off my dehydrator and make some fruit leather! An excuse to use that thing (or just make it in the oven like you did!)

    Reply

  3. This is going to be a dumb question (and I will expose myself for being awkward in the kitchen) but what if your Silpat baking mats don’t fit your baking pans? I just looked them up online and I don’t know if I have baking pans that size and I’m a bit anal about things like that…ha!

    Reply

    1. Not dumb at all:) You can use parchment paper or plastic wrap if you don’t have a Silpat….or you can always use this as an excuse to buy new pans:)

    1. Yes, if you feel the fruit is sweet enough you don’t have to add sugar. I really don’t add much at all, just a smidge of agave or honey. Enjoy!

  9. Yum this looks delicious. I have wanted to make fruit leather forever… I think I need to make some this weekend. Could you make it with apples or pears you think?
    PS I just came across your blog and I am insanely happy to have found you. SO many wonderful recipes!

    Reply

    1. So happy you found us too:) If you want to do apple or pears, I would cook them on the stove until tender. I would add a little lemon juice so they don’t turn brown too. Then you can blend them and make the fruit leather. Enjoy!

  12. My mom made fruit leather all the time when I was growing up. She used all kinds of fruit for it during the summer and early fall. It was so good. Your post was a fun reminder of it this morning.

    Reply

  15. Would be it possible to make with frozen fruit at all? I have a lot left over from when I was making baby food in the winter, and wondered if I could use it for this…? Thanks!

    Reply

    1. You can use frozen fruit, just heat it on the stove until it is soft. Let cool to room temperature and then blend it. Enjoy!

  20. OH MY GOODNESS!! I am making this with my daughter coco and all of my ripe peaches today! You make it look SO easy 🙂

    Reply

  22. This makes me wish I had gotten a box of peaches that I could have this week. I can almost taste the fruit leather in my mouth right now!

    Reply

  26. I keep seeing homemade fruit leather on the internets – I guess it’s a sign that it’s time to make some. Especially, if it looks so yummy!

    Reply

  27. This looks awesome, can’t wait to try this! As a kid, fruit leather was the closest thing I ever got to fruit roll-ups all the other kids had so I kind of resented them but I think I’d be ready to allow them back into my life 🙂

    Reply

  28. Wow, I didn’t realise this was so easy to make! I thought it would be difficult, whoops. I have to make this soon, will be good to snack on after I work out 🙂

    Reply

    1. Yes, look at the recipe, I made a note. You can use parchment paper or plastic wrap if you don’t have a Silpat. Enjoy!

  32. Yum! These look great! And I love how they are way more natural than the ones you can buy in the store.

    I just wanted to mention that I made your Banana Cream Pie pudding cookies last week and they are FANTASTIC! I wasn’t sure about a banana flavored cookie at first, but they were so good and actually stayed soft for a few days after baking too. My husband also really loved them. They are definitely becoming a permanent recipe in our cookie rotation! 🙂

    Reply

  38. I am always wanting to do this and have seen so many recipes, but the thought of keeping my oven on for 6-8 hours in Texas and what my electric bill will look like makes me hesitate. Maybe one day!

    Reply

    1. If you look at step 1 it will tell you the temperature:) 150 degrees F or as low as your oven will go.

  42. How awesome! Fruit leather was always my favorite as a kid! I would do gross things like wrap it around my finger and suck on it as I walked around the grocery store with my mom, for all public to see. haha! Reliving the memories makes me want to make this really badly! I think i’d better get a Silpat and a Blendtec quick 🙂

    Reply

  43. Great post Maria – amazing how simple it is to make, isn’t it? My boys used to love fruit leather… oh, I miss those days!!!

    Reply

  48. So I did this with apples without precooking them. Will it still turn out? 6 hours is a long time to wait to find out 🙂

    Reply

    1. I’ve always cooked the apples on the stove first, but I am sure they will be fine. Did you add a little lemon juice to prevent browning?

  51. This takes me back to my brown bag lunches in gradeschool but in a waaaaay cool and healthier way. It’s been forever since I’ve had fruit leather. Looks like a fun and tasty experiment!

    Reply

  53. SO interesting! I’ve always wondered how this sort of stuff is made and making it at home would be amazing since there would be no preservatives. I must try this 🙂

    Reply

  55. I tried making fruit leathers once. ONCE.

    I totally bombed at it … mainly because I decided to use blackberries…. and didn’t strain the seeds out.

    big. fat. FAIL.

    Reply

  56. I knew this post was coming, even saw the fruit leather on your counter top, and I’m still super excited about this post. I’m going to having to try making my own for sure!

    Reply

  59. I made these and they were so good but I ended up having to bake them for 10 hours and they were still way too moist. ( I stuck them in the freezer and we’re eating them from there. Any advice on why this happened and how to prevent it?
    ps- my oven was set on dehydrate 150 degrees

    Reply

    1. Hmmm…do you live in a humid climate? Utah is dry so maybe that is why mine didn’t take as long?

    1. You can try turning up the oven a bit-no higher than 200. Ours dried up nicely. Sorry you had issues.

    1. Yes, that is fine. Just watch it because the time it takes to dry might be a little different. Enjoy!

  63. I just followed these instructions and made fruit leather for the first time. I made pear/strawberry and had the hardest time not eating my fruit puree before pouring it onto the silpat! It is on it’s 2nd hour in the oven and is smelling so good. I hope that this turns out. Couldn’t be easier! And so much cheaper and healthier than store bought fruit roll-ups! Thank you!

    Reply

  65. First attempt at these failed BIG time. I’m psyched to come across your recipe and will be attempting it again, forthwith. Question, as far as keeping it, you mentioned in an air-tight container. Is that okay in the cabinet? Or should it be refrigerated?

    Thanks for your input,

    Vee

    Reply

    1. Sorry you had trouble with the recipe. We make homemade fruit leather all of the time and haven’t had an issue. We store ours in the cabinet.

  66. Have you ever used food coloring with your recipe? Asking because I am making a birthday cake and wanted a grayish color for “pavement” Do you think it would make any difference in the recipe? Thanks

    Reply

  67. Oooh! I have a Blendtec, what an awesome idea! I can’t wait to try this, though I think I’ll use my dehydrator =)

    Reply

  68. Thanks for the super simple recipe – I just finished my first batch ever – with local strawberries we picked – and it is YUMMY! I added a drop of lemon and next time I’ll try adding cinnamon too. I love how straight forward this recipe is. Thanks!!!!

    Reply

  70. I tried the recipe but instead of being “rubbery” mine was completely crispy. Like a big fruit cracker. Any idea of what may have gone wrong? I have a convection oven…could that be a problem? I put oven as low as it would go and after 2 hours it was one big crisp. I’d love any help!

    ~Renee

    Reply

  71. Hello I need to make green fruit leathers for candy sushi as I cannot find them anyway in stores all Green. I need for this coming Friday. I was just going to make and realized my oven only goes down to 275 I know you say 150 or as low as your oven goes but mine is way off can it still be done? If so am I cooking less time? Thanks!!!!

    Reply

  72. My oven temp only goes as low as 200 degrees. I tried my first batch today and within an hour, the plastic wrap had melted all over the fruit leather and the fruit leather had already started hardening. Any ideas?

    Reply

  73. Tacky or not tacky in the centre? Recipe says until NOT tacky, story says centre is tacky.
    I’m guessing NOT but please confirm. Looking forward to trying this!
    Caroline

    Reply

  74. So I tried this tonight and ours is crispy… but the middle was not done and it had only been like 3 hours?!!?

    Reply

  75. I tried this for the first time today, and I’m bummed! I had it in for six hours, but the last two hours that it was in happened to be during dinner/bath/bed time for the kids… I completely forgot about it, and now have one huge fruit cracker, like someone posted above! It tastes ok, but not the wonderful leather I’ve been anticipating all day! Such a bummer – I’m trying out a bunch of new snack recipes to help my family get away from processed, store-bought stuff, and both of the ones that I tried today failed!
    Oh well… I know it’s not a problem with the recipe – it’s totally user error on this one! I’m just bummed that I wasted all that fruit. (It was a peach/strawberry/blueberry concoction, if anyone is interested!)
    Oh well, try, try again, right!

    Reply

  76. Well I just put them in the oven, I only had wax paper and it kept bunching up as I was trying to smooth it out… I got it as smooth as I could, but it still has very thin spots. I hit the baking sheet on the counter and everything! Do you think it will make a difference? How did you get yours to be so smooth and flat?? Please help! I want them to be yummy, chewy and delicious!

    Reply

  77. This looked like a great recipe- until I tried it! I must have done something very wrong because the fruit leather will not peel away from the parchment paper (I don’t have a Silpat mat so I lined the cookie sheet with parchment paper). What I was able to taste was great, but I had to scrap the whole batch 🙁 Any ideas?

    Reply

  78. made these today. 3 cups of pureed berries doesn’t give you much. I ended up doing 12 cups pureed for 3 large cookie sheets. the parchment paper either needs to be creased or cut to fit cookie sheet since it wants to stick up and not let the puree go to all edges of pan. Baked mine at 170 for 8 hours and middles were still gooey while outer edges ended up being crisp-like chips/crumbs. I did bang my sheets on the counter to evenly distribute. I added about 1/2 cup of sugar for each 3 cup of puree and it tastes good, just takes forever to bake. So far, all comments I read were before any cooking took place. Now you know.

    Reply

  79. I never have 6 hours to do this. I’ve found a way to make them in 3. I just boil out some of the moisture before putting them in the oven.

    Reply

  80. Cutting up pears for the dehydrator. They are small, so I was just halving them and cutting the “backs” off. I ended up with about two cups of “circle scraps”. I threw them in the blender skins and all. The pears are super sweet. No more room in dehydrator, so just poured the leather out on parchment paper and put in oven as you said. My oven’s lowest is 170, so I will watch it closely.

    Reply

  81. Thank You!!! My six year old and I spent the morning making use of our blueberries, plums and nectarines, super yummy and easy healthy snack!

    Reply

  82. I tried this with apples but it didn’t work, I think my mistake was not adding water as this recipe is for peaches which are a lot more juicy then apples

    Reply

    1. For some fruits, you do need pectin as a natural binding agent. You could get 2 type of pectin, one that uses sugar, another is the non-sugar required type.

  83. So question I saw somewhere you can leave it outside covered like in a grill on a hot summers day has anyone tried this method?

    Reply

    1. I have popped a couple of trays on the dashboard in my car and parked in the driveway on a sunny day. This worked extremely well. You may need to leave in the car for a couple of days depending on the temperature outside.

    2. I am from Fresno California where most of the days are between 95 and 105° in summer. My mom used to set the fruit leather out every summer in the heat and it worked perfectly!

  84. Hi, I am dying to try making mango fruit leather…I noticed you can use plastic wrap…do you know how you would go about doing this? It won’t melt because you are adding moisture to cover all of it…so it will steam but not melt? Is that the general idea?

    Thanks for your advice… Can’t wait to try this!

    Reply

  85. Do you think blueberries would work? I have about 6 pounds of berries in the freezer, some of which will be made into jelly. I like to add lemon juice to brighten the flavor but that will add more liquid. I guess it would just stay in the oven longer?

    Reply

  87. Have you ever done blueberry? Do I need to cook it first or add some other fruit with them.

    Reply

  88. I use coconut oil on a paper towel to grease my dehydrator racks and or cookie sheets. It tastes good and you don’t have to worry about plastic. I want to store leather more than a month. Worried about mold. How about a cracker in a jar with it?

    Reply

    1. As long as it’s in an airtight container, it should stay good for a year even. That’s the whole premise of dehydrating. Eliminating the moisture keeps bacteria from growing.

  89. I’m so excited to have found this recipe! My dehydrator quit on me and I really wanted some fruit leather to take on my backpacking trip this weekend. I am making pineapple/mango and didn’t add any sweetener because my fruit was REALLY ripe lol. I have it in the oven right now 😉 can’t wait to see how it turns out. Thank you again for posting this recipe!!!!!

    Reply

  90. Can I split up the time in the oven leaving the baking sheet in the oven? I don’t have 6-8 straight time in the home except for when I’m sleeping.

    Reply

    1. I haven’t tried it this way. I am not sure if it will reduce the time or not! Let me know if you try it!

  91. I tried making this today and I’m not sure if I did it correctly. I used my pampered chef stoneware with 4 cups of strawberries. My pan is 11×17 but my leather burned in about a 1.5″ band around the edges and the whole thing was incredibly thin and cracky. I used a cake pan with a silpat for another one (mixed berries) and that also burned and the inside never set. My oven was at 170* which was the lowest, and I set the timer for 5 hours. The edges were burned the but insides were still wet, so I kept it in there for 3 more hours, checking every 30 minutes. At the end it was still wet but at this point I’d kind of given up Not sure what I did wrong – do you have any insight? I was really looking forward to this and am definitely willing to try again if I know what I can improve upon.

    Reply

  92. I’m making pear leather but I cook my pears with the skins and pits and then put them through the Victoria strainer. I make applesauce with it all the time. We had a bakery so I can put the sheet pans in the oven when it is off. and come back hours later to see if it is ready to go. May be the lady from Texas could dry her leather in the sun covered with cheese cloth instead of using her oven….

    Reply

  93. I just tried this. It took way longer to dry (maybe I made it too thick?) but now it’s finally done…and completely stuck to my parchment paper :(. Anyone else have this happen? I think I need a silpat…

    Reply

  95. Wonderful, very cool! Thank you so very much for sharing this! I think my finicky cat 3yo teething with revenge of the molars toddler will enjoy this! 😀 I will give it a try and keep you posted.

    Reply

  96. Looking forward to making it. Have you ever made fruit sticks from purée just not as dehydrated? Been searching for years for a recipe

    Reply

  97. I made strawberry/mango and strawberry ones yesterday! I used parchment paper and I don’t really like to use it for the fruit leathers because it clumps up in the middle and doesn’t really spread well:/ it comes out cooked uneven semi raw in the middle. I love making them since my kids love them. My oven is pretty small so I had to get new cookie sheets to fit it:/ so getting a silpat is kind of hard since the one I have are a little snug in my cookie sheets:/ can you walk me through in getting the right size??Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

  99. My mouth is watering while reading the recipe. Now, I just can’t wait for peach season (so I can get them cheaper) to try it.
    Thanks for the delicious ideas.

    Reply

  100. Is this tough or soft? My one year old doesn’t have teeth yet so she can’t really bit things. Wondering if this would be okay for her

    Reply

  104. 5 stars
    We are vegans and we have a toddler; This was an amazing change up on fruit! Thank you so much!! We all loved it so much!!

    Reply

  106. I have been cooking mine for 8 hours, at 170, now and the middle is still very much the applesauce I put in there and the outside is getting VERY dry….. help?

    Reply

  107. Thank you for this recipe! I tried it on a parchment paper and sadly ruined 3 cups… had you tried it on parchment paper before? My oven didn’t go down to 150 – lowest was 170 – so that definitely could have contributed. I’m just sad. My husband was really looking forward to it but I can’t peel it off the parchment paper at all. Any suggestions?

    Reply

  108. Hi, just wondering if anyone else has encountered strange drying that results in cracks and fissures forming in the puree as it dries? If so, do you know what is causing this and how to prevent it? I make a lot of fruit leather, and it seems to happen some times but not others. Thanks!

    Reply

  109. This sounds amazing but i only see 1 issue. You can’t put plastic wrap in an oven…it would melt and ruin the fruit leather….

    Reply

    1. Actually if you use plastic wrap that can go in the microwave you can use it in the oven at 170^ and have no problems. First time I made it I used parchment and it completely stuck and was ruined. This time I tried it with parchment and plastic on foil lined cookie sheets, but I sprayed them both with cooking spray before cooking and they both worked great.

    1. that would just be the fibre part of the fruit.. i don’t think it would bind or taste v nice..

  111. Hi Maria, I have an excess of Feijoas here in Mansfield, Victoria, Australia. Have you done Feijoa fruit roll ups? If so, did you cook the flesh before you did puree? I have made heaps of Feijoa Jam & loved it but looking for something different to try with the last 30 odd kgs of smaller fruit. Thanks Janene

    Reply

  113. 5 stars
    I do not add any sugar or cook the fruit vitaminmix does a great job .my family love it. I freeze it if not using in next month or two then I would keep it in fridge till needed..
    Freezer makes it brittle till defrosted.

    Reply