I came across a homemade fruit "roll ups" recipe that seemed to go to be true. It was way to simple. I always imagined that making them, without machinery, would be pretty tough. I mean, they look so "perfect"!
Anyways, I was browsing the recipe portion of the Disney Family website (click here) when I came across the recipe. I was thrilled. I wanted to try to make fruit snacks for the girls because even the "100 percent fruit" had junk in them that I didn't like.
The recipe (here) called for dry fruit and water. Simple right? It totally was super simple!
Here's the recipe and directions. We actually used a tropical fruit medley!
By Anne Coleman
Ingredients
8 ounces dried apricots or other dried fruit
1 1/2 cups water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
- Line a 12x15 inch baking sheet with aluminum foil; coat foil with non-stick cooking spray.
- Combine apricots or other dried fruit with water in a heavy saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes or until fruit is very soft.
- Drain excess liquid and pour fruit into a blender. Puree until very smooth.
- Pour fruit onto prepared foil and spread evenly, making sure there are no holes.
- Place sheet into oven for 25 minutes. Without opening oven, turn heat off and leave oven door shut for 8 hours.
- Remove baking sheet from oven and gently peel fruit from foil. Set on waxed paper, right-side down, and press down.
- Cut into 12 even strips, lengthwise. Roll each strip with the paper side out and store in plastic bags until ready to eat.
Oh, I also used parchment paper. The picture on the website looks like a type of cellophane was used to back the rolls, I had parchment paper and it worked just fine. :)
Anyways, it was a lot of fun! It was tricky to spread on the tinfoil and getting it as even as possible without any holes was a bit of a process, at least for me, but it was a lot of fun. They aren't as pretty as their processed counterparts but they sure do taste better and looks aren't everything! My children were very pleased with them!
My 4 year old, Becka, was nice enough to let me get pictures of her during her tasting process. She LOVED them, gave them a thumbs up and then ran off to let her younger sister try it. It was a huge success with Taegen too, who refused all photo ops though.
I will be making these again, maybe one day I'll be able to dry my own fruit!
Spread onto the foil:
Cutting into strips (I can not cut a strait line, apparently):
The finished rolls:
Storage :)
Becka's wonderful candid moments lol :) She loved them!
