Berry Fruit Leather

When I first moved out to the farm, a couple years back, I was excited to see all the berries that were growing here.  I grew up picking red raspberries and black raspberries, and have always loved them.  Much to my disappointment, the majority of the berries we have here are blackberries, which I never cared for.  We only have enough black raspberries for me to munch on while picking the other berries, and just enough red raspberries to make one dish. We also have mulberries, but I haven't learned what to do with those yet. This year, we will be planting more red and black raspberries!

Fortunately, I have developed a taste for the blackberries, but have been limited on recipes in which I like them.  I still have tons of them in the freezer from last year, and am always looking for new ways to try them, hoping I find something I like.  On Pinterest, I have found several new ideas to try with the blackberries.  The one I kept running into the most was for Fruit Leather. I've always heard of it, but the closest I have come to Fruit Leather is Fruit Roll-ups!

What the heck, I didn't have anything to loose other than my time, so I gave it a shot.  Fruit leather is good! I like it better than Fruit Roll-ups!  I did sadly find out that my extra sheet pan somehow got bent, wish I would have known that before putting this in the oven :)

Fruit Leather   (adapted from Georgia Pellegrini)

Add your combination of berries into a pot.  I used 3/4 blackberries, and 1/4 strawberries.  Cut them into small pieces if you can. I add mine straight from the freezer.

Add a splash of lemon juice. And some water.  Between 1/4 cup to 1 cup of water. Just enough to help them stew. Cook over medium heat, mashing occasionally. Once they are all soft and mushy, remove from heat. 

Cover sheet pan(s) with plastic wrap.  Brush lightly with olive oil.  

Add stewed fruit to blender. Be careful with this step, blending hot food can be messy.  Remove the cap from the whole in the blender lid, then cover the lid with a dishtowel.  After blended, sample the mixture to see if you need to add sugar.  Add with caution as the fruit will naturally be sweeter as it dries. I did not have to add any sugar to my last batch.

Pour the mixture onto your lined sheet pan(s). Spread it so it's even. Now, into the oven it goes.  Low temperature, the lowest my oven goes is 170, and it took about 10 hours. I had the oven cracked about half of the time to keep the temp as low as I could. 

When it's done, it will be completely dry. Cut it up in slices, I found my pizza cutter worked great for this task.

It is a long wait, but so worth it!