Thursday, August 21, 2014

Peach Fruit Leather By-The-Foot



Millions of peaches...peaches for free...

Okay, I didn't get them for free--just on a good sale.  But I was so excited to make something with them.  And this fruit leather has been a hit around here! 

My kids LOVE Fruit By the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups, fruit snacks--so much so that I rarely buy them. I joke that they are like crack in my house. If my kids know any of these items are in the house, that is ALL they want to have for snacks until they are gone! And they are mostly sugar. Not really a health food.

Well, these fruit snacks ARE healthy.  No refined sugar. Packed with real fruit. And yummy! They actually taste like peaches! Mmm, mmm. 

Here's how to make 'em: 

You'll need: About 10 medium peaches and 1/3 cup of honey; cooking spray, plastic wrap, and cookie sheets with sides.

1. Follow the directions to peel peaches found here on Our Best Bites. 
This process is an AWESOME time saver. 

2. Remove the stones from the peaches, and put the peeled halves in a blender with 1/3 cup of honey.

3. My 10 peaches made about 6.5 cups of puree. I kind of wanted to pour some on ice and just drink it. It looks tempting, huh?


4.  Cover a couple of walled cookie sheets, with plastic wrap. Make sure it is firmly over each edge. Spray it lightly with cooking spray, then pour the puree on to the pan, spreading it until it is 1/4 inch thick everywhere.

5. Place in an oven set to 175-200°.  Bake for 6-8 hours.  You can do this overnight, but I suggest the lower temp, longer cooking if you are leaving it unchecked.  Otherwise, check it at about 5 hours. The liquid content of peaches varies, so yours may take less or more time, depending on how juicy your peaches were. 

6. Remove from the oven when it is the texture of a fruit roll-up--sticky but not wet. This is what it will look like when you remove it from the oven.

7. Once it has cooled, roll it up with the plastic still on. Cut the roll into 1-2 inch pieces. I did this using a pair of kitchen scissors. A sharp knife would work as well. 

These are easy grab-and-go snacks. I store all of them in zip-lock bags in the pantry. Now my kids can snack on REAL FRUIT all they want to!


This post is partying at these link-ups.


15 comments:

  1. Oh my word! Genius, Kelly! I want to make these so bad!! And I love how they are already rolled with plastic between. So perfect. I will be watching for a good peach sale around here, now.

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    1. Thanks, Sarah! We took them hiking this weekend, and they made excellent trail food!

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  2. My kids love the fruit roll ups too! And since I have bunches of pears from our pear tree I'm going to be making some pear roll ups this week for them! This is awesome, thanks for sharing:) I hopped over from the Marvelous Monday Linky party.

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    1. Glad you stopped by! I'm hoping to make some from other fruits soon, too! Thank you!

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  3. Ah this is an awesome idea. My daughter loves fruit leathers too, she calls them "stickies", yeah not really healthy!! But this is totally on the right track. Healthy and loved by the kids :-)

    Thanks for linking up to Marvelous Monday on Smart Party Planning :-)

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    1. Thanks for a great party, Catherine. Always a pleasure.

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  4. Great step-by-step tutorial on making fruit leather. Definitely better than store bought. Thanks for sharing with us on Merry Monday. Pinned.

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    1. Thanks, Erlene! And thank you for the pin and the party. I hope to be back!

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  5. Yum! I'm going to have to try these. Just pinned them!

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  6. I just saw this recipe on a morning show and it looks delicious and healthy - a great share. Thank you for sharing it with us at the #WWDParty and enjoy the holiday.

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    1. Thank you! I enjoyed the party and hope to be back in the future!

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  7. This is just what I need. I just got a bushel of peaches! I will be featuring this recipe next week at Saturday Dishes. The them for next week is Garden/Harvest. I hope you'll stop by again!!

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    1. Thanks, Lisa! I'll look forward to the feature next week. I think I have some good ideas for the Garden/Harvest theme!

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  8. What a great recipe - easy to make and healthy!! :)

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