Thursday 27 August 2009

100% pure fruit homemade sweets

Or alternatively known as fruit leather. So the rosehip puree I made was made into the rosehip syrup, and some was put aside in the dehydrator to make a fruit leather, and here it is

rosehip leather
from this puree (below)

It's absolutely lovely, sweet and good for you. Rosehips are full of vitamin C so a small piece of this each day, or some of the syrup made earlier will help keep our immunity boosted against the colds that will inevitably be around later in the year.

Fruit leathers can be made with any fruit puree I would imagine, and the next one on my list to try is hawthorn berry leather as they are abundant at the moment and have been perfectly ripe for while now, so off picking we go next time we're out. Haws are great for your heart and circulation, so a small piece of this leather each day will help keep those functions healthy too.

I have seen dried fruit strips rolled up in supermarkets (can't remember the brand), but no doubt they are full of preservatives and other things, whereas my fruit leathers are just pure fruit and a little water.

We do have a dehydrator that makes this easier, it gets used a lot to preserve food and dried foods store well. So far this year we have dried fruit (all sorts), tomatoes, garlic, onion, beetroot (unbelievably moreish), and probably more but my mind has gone blank. One of our favourites is dried Kiwi fruit - it just tastes like the sherbet dips powder I used to love as a child, except it's 100% fruit. Anyway, fruit leathers can also be made using a tray in an oven at a low temperature if you haven't got a dehydrator.

Our dehydrator wasn't expensive - we didn't want to spend a lot on it in case it sat being unused, but it gets used a lot and we wouldn't hesitate in buying one again if it ever breaks down (hopefully it won't).

2 comments:

  1. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I wondered what fruit leather was when you mentioned it in your other post :)

    I've been looking at dehydrators too. If I have got myself straight by Yule (my goal) then Imight treat myself to one in the New Year :)

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