Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Home-made Fruit Roll-Up

Every once in a while, I will peruse the time-sucking wonder of Pinterest.  I have recognized the dangers of the site and I haven't yet put any pins up of my own, but I do occasionally foray into the zone of danger when the kids are sleeping, and I stumble across ideas that I think I might actually be able to pull off.  The last thing I tried was this home-made fruit roll up stuff.  I had some fruit kicking around that was past its prime for straight eating, and I thought I'd give this a shot.  I quartered, cored, peeled, chopped, and cooked some apples, and threw them in the blender with strawberries, raspberries and some honey.  I spread this mixture out on parchment paper on four cookie sheets, and put them in the oven for about 5 hours at the lowest temp my oven will do, 170F.  When it was dry-ish to the touch, I took them out, cut them into 1" strips and fed them to my kids, and boy were they a hit!  
Edit:  Tips for Laura :)
I didn't use a specific recipe - I looked around on the internet a bit and it came down to what I had on hand for fruit. A few tips: I cooked the apples first b/c they would be too hard to throw straight in the blender with the berries. I added... maybe 3 tbsp of honey and a 1/4 cup white sugar to sweeten it. I did strain the whole mix before I spread it on the cookie sheets to get some of the seeds out. I used parchment paper, not plastic wrap b/c it seemed a little sketchy to put plastic wrap in the oven like some sites suggested. Try to get the puree as even as possible on the sheets so it will dry evenly. It was in the oven at 170 from 7-10:30, and again in the morning from 7:30-9 or so. I switched the trays around a few times, and dabbed the edges with a wet paper towel a few times to keep them from drying out too much and getting crispy. Hope this helps!  Also, I drained the extra juices out of the cooked apples, and the thawed strawberries and raspberries so the puree wouldn't be too liquidy.
 


5 comments:

L.V. said...

I was looking into this a few months ago - is there a recipe that you could send me Rachel? It's good to know it's been kid "tested" before I give it a go!
Laura :)

Unknown said...

I didn't use a specific recipe - I looked around on the internet a bit and it came down to what I had on hand for fruit. A few tips: I cooked the apples first b/c they would be too hard to throw straight in the blender with the berries. I added... maybe 3 tbsp of honey and a 1/4 cup white sugar to sweeten it. I did strain the whole mix before I spread it on the cookie sheets to get some of the seeds out. I used parchment paper, not plastic wrap b/c it seemed a little sketchy to put plastic wrap in the oven like some sites suggested. Try to get the puree as even as possible on the sheets so it will dry evenly. It was in the oven at 170 from 7-10:30, and again in the morning from 7:30-9 or so. I switched the trays around a few times, and dabbed the edges with a wet paper towel a few times to keep them from drying out too much and getting crispy. Hope this helps! You can check out this website too for extra info and pictures
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/09/how-to-make-homemade-fruit-roll-ups/

Unknown said...

Also, I drained the extra juices out of the cooked apples, and the thawed strawberries and raspberries so the puree wouldn't be too liquidy.

L.V. said...

Thanks Rachel! I'm going to try this out soon...
Laura :)

Lauren said...

Very cool - look at you, Super Mom! (Pinterest has some WONDERFUL ideas - I've been putting quite a few of them to use myself)