My Emma is a snacker. She always has been, but over the years, I’ve gotten pretty particular about what snacks she gets. It seems like the older that she gets, the unhealthier the snacking options that are available are. That’s why in 2015 when we started really going at figuring out the things that we could stop buying and make to save money, finding healthier and easy snack recipes had a huge place on my to-do list. The thing is though that I am a crazy busy mom and small business owner. I don’t have time for recipes that take forever. I have to have easy snack recipes that I can make in just a few minutes in order to be able to skip buying them. These homemade fruit rollups fit that bill. In fact, these are one of my favorite dehydrator recipes period.
When you buy fruit rollups at the store, you’re opening your family up to all sorts of nasty chemicals. There’s just something about being able to hand your child a snack that you made yourself and knowing exactly what is in it. That’s one of the reasons that I love these homemade fruit rollups. In fact, of all of the easy snack recipes that I make, this one might be my favorite. The other reason that I adore these homemade fruit rollups is because they’re so easy to customize. The recipe below is for berry flavor, but you can just as easily make them in apple, blueberry, strawberry, strawberry banana, banana and so many more. You can even do it with tomato paste to make homemade tomato leather! One of our favorite variations is apple cinnamon. This homemade fruit leather is also great for taking on a camping trip so the next time you’re planning a hiking trip or a camping trip, be sure that you come back to this recipe and make a few different flavors to take with you. We’ve never had them melt during the scorching Texas summers so they’ve become one of our staple dehydrator recipes for our camping trips.
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Easy Snack Recipes – How to Make Homemade Fruit Rollups
The recipe below does have added sugar. Don’t freak out over that. You can absolutely leave out the sugar if you want and it won’t make much of a difference. Some folks like them with added sugar though so for the sake of this post, we included it. This is a dehydrator recipe so you’ll need a dehydrator for this recipe, but if you don’t have one, you can make them in the oven. Turn it onto the warm setting, open the door and let them “bake” until they are dehydrated. It doesn’t work quite as well, but it’ll do in a pinch.
You will need:
- Fruit or Veggies
- Sugar to taste (Optional)
- Parchment Paper
- Dehydrator
To start, pull out a sheet of parchment paper that is larger than the dehydrator trays that you will be using. Using a sharpie, trace the outside of the tray to fit for size. If you don’t want to do this method, you can buy fruit rollup inserts for your dehydrator that make things much easier. I went ahead and did that since we dehydrate a lot of liquid things.
Next, trace the inside of the tray with the sharpie. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but the middle does need to be done. Without it being done, the air in your dehydrator won’t circulate correctly and your parchment paper won’t lie flat. Once you’ve got the center cut out, line your dehydrator trays.
Add your berries and sugar (if using) to your blender and puree. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth if you don’t want it to be. Leaving a few larger pieces will add a texture to your homemade fruit rollups that some people like.
Once you’ve got your berries pureed, use a ladle and fill your trays. To make sure you get an even coating, add a small bit then smooth out. Add more and repeat until you have a layer that is 1/4″-1/8″ thick.
Try to get your layers even. If they aren’t, you’ll likely end up with one thicker side and one very thin side. Once your trays are full and even, stack them and turn your dehydrator on. For these specific homemade fruit rollups, you’re going to dehydrate for 12-16 hours. In other words, check them about 12 hours in but keep in mind they could take as long as 16 hours to fully dry. That is just the nature with dehydrator recipes. They take forever and have no set cooking (or rather drying) time.
You’ll know that your homemade fruit rollups are done when they are dry but not brittle. They should be stretchy, not breakable. If you happen to dry them too long, that’s okay! Break them into bite sized pieces and you have a yummy homemade candy!
Once they’re done, roll your disc up into one big piece and cut into rollup sized strips. Roll each one in a piece of parchment paper then store in an airtight container in the fridge. They will keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge.
