I have made apricot leather for years and kids (and adults) love it. I do not add sugar but add a banana to a blender of apricots. This gives sweetness without added sugar.
I have made apricot leather for years and kids (and adults) love it. I do not add sugar but add a banana to a blender of apricots. This gives sweetness without added sugar.
I was looking for fresh apricot recipes to use up all the fruit my tree produced. This one is the best I've found. My kids (except the one who doesn't eat things that don't come from a box) LOVED it - thought it was a fruit roll up. I lowered the sugar to 1/3 c. on the 2nd and 3rd batches because our apricots are really sweet by themselves so the first batch turned out a bit too sweet for me. My oven only goes to 170 but I just left it on and cracked open for the whole day. It took about 6.5 hours.
Very tasty! I didn't want to leave my oven on for hours while making several batches of leather so I froze the apricot mixture in 2 cup pkg. so I can make the leather in the winter time whenever we want.
This recipe was very simple to put together and tastes wonderful! The only reason it received 4 out of 5 stars was because after 8 hours in the oven, I had to put it in my dehydrator to finish up. The lowest my oven goes is 170 degrees. I started it, set the timer for 6 hours and walked away. Apparantly because my oven is one of the newer models, it turns off the heating element when the door is open. The fact that when I followed the recipe and stuck a spoon in the door to keep it open, it turned off the heating element and didn't bake the leather :( A note to all who might have a newer model oven, check the users manual to see if it turns off the heating element when the door is open. If that's the case and you dont have a dehydrator as a backup, this might not be the right recipe for you. For everyone else, this is a great recipe. My kids loved every bite and I felt good about giving them something healthy without all of the additives most "fruit snacks" contain. Thank you for a great recipe!
This is great as is. I feel a little dumb that I didn't think of it myself. The pilot light in my gas oven with the light on for a little extra heat makes a great dehydrator. I didn't have to turn the oven on at all.
This was wonderful! Made as directed except used a jelly roll pan covered with saran wrap and spread the mixture slightly thicker. I dried two batches at a time rotating the pans every hour. It took 6.5 hours in my oven at 150 degrees. Great recipe for using up large amounts of fruit that might otherwise go bad. Thanks for sharing Cheri!
I couldn't wait so I used a 250 degree oven for 2 hours. Used a wooden spoon to keep oven cracked to allow moisture to escape. Awesome!
you can also dry it in the sun, but it is nice to have some kind of net over it so that you don't get a lot of flies or other insects in it.
For those whose oven can only set to 170 degree the lowest, there is a way to trick the oven. There is a light button on the corner of your oven (mine is one the left hand side). You can see it when you open your oven door. When you use a long wooden spoon to keep the door ajar, make sure the spoon is also pushing that light button down, it will "fool" the oven to think the door is closed and the oven will keep running.
I'm not sure how to rate this recipe!! Taste wise - I would rate higher. However my lowest setting on my oven is 170F so I had to keep turning it on briefly then off again!! Lucky I was home all day because that is how long it took.
