This homemade strawberry fruit leather looks just like the childhood snack you remember, and it's super easy to make with just 5 all-natural ingredients.
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This tie-dye strawberry fruit leather is part of our "Better Than Store-Bought" series, where we're sharing homemade recipes of our favorite snacks, without the artificial colors, flavors and processed sugars.
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Just 5 ingredients: This recipe only requires 4 ingredients, and a fifth if you want to make your fruit leather tie-dye.
- Nostalgic: I used to love Fruit by the Foot when I was growing up. These have that same red and blue tie-dye effect and the same satisfying paper peel, but they taste even better!
- Delicious: This strawberry fruit leather is sweet, tangy, fruity and downright delicious! It's honestly a bit difficult not to eat the entire batch in one sitting.
- Hands off: It does take a bit of time to let this strawberry fruit leather dry out in the oven, but it only takes a few minutes of prep time on your end. Just blend up the ingredients, pour onto a sheet pan and leave it in the oven!
Ingredients
Here's what you'll need to make this tie-dye strawberry fruit leather:
Ingredient Notes
- Strawberries: We use fresh strawberries for the best taste. You can use frozen, but you'll need to let the strawberries defrost and then strain to remove excess liquid. This may also alter the cook time of the recipe, as frozen will have different moisture content than fresh.
- Honey: You can try agave, maple syrup or even regular granulated sugar, but we like the flavor of honey. Alternatively, you could blend in 1-2 medjool dates for sweetness.
- Apple: This adds body to the leather and helps balance out the flavor. You can replace with more strawberry if you don't have apples on hand.
- Lemon: Freshly squeezed is always best. Don't skip this!
- Blue spirulina: We used this for the blue section of our tie dye fruit leather. You could also use a handful of blueberries or blackberries (thought the color won't be as intense, and it will result in some cracks in your leather), or natural or artificial food coloring (if you're ok with it). Spirulina does have a strong flavor when eaten by itself, but we used a small amount, and the cooking process leeches out some of the flavor.
Equipment
Zwilling Enfinigy Power Blender
To make this recipe, you'll need a blender, and for best results (i.e. preventing graininess), you'll want to use a high power blender.
We're using our Zwilling Enfinigy Power Blender for this recipe. It has 6 pre-programmed settings (Pulse, Smoothie, Cocktail, Ice Cream, Ice Crushing, and Cleaning), and 12 variable speed settings, so it's perfect for quite literally any task!
We use a blender at least a few times per day for recipe testing and daily cooking, so it's super important to have something that will last. Another huge bonus: it comes with a tamper, which I use all the time for making thick, creamy smoothie bowls.
We're almost finished with our kitchen renovation and I can't wait to see this on our countertops! It's sleek, beautiful and couldn't be easier to use. Check it out here.
Step-by-step Instructions
PREP: Preheat your oven to its lowest temperature (ours was 170˚F).
STEP 1: Add strawberries, apples, honey, and lemon juice to a blender and blend until completely smooth. You shouldn't see any seeds.
Optional: soak a piece of parchment paper in water for a minute or two, dry it with a kitchen towel, and place it onto a rimmed 13x18" baking sheet. Wetting the parchment paper will help the fruit leather stick better. You can also use a silpat, but you won't get that classic peel-away paper characteristic.
STEP 2: Pour about 90% of your strawberry mixture into the sheet pan, and spread it out from the center towards the sides, so the sides are slightly thicker than the middle. Since the fruit leather dries from the outside in, the outsides will cook faster than the middle. If you leave too much pooled in the center, it will still be wet by the time the edges start to get crispy.
STEP 3: Add the spirulina to the remaining strawberry mixture and blend or whisk together. You can also use a handful of blueberries or blackberries to color this mixture. We tested it several times with fruit, and it always split slightly in the sections where the two colors meet, which is why we opted for spirulina. It still tastes good, but won't look as nice.
STEP 4: To create those tie-dye swirls, swirl your blue strawberry mixture on top of your red. Use a chopstick or knife to first make lines outward from the middle, then swirl in a circular pattern.
STEP 5: Transfer to oven and use a dish towel or oven mitt the prop open the oven door slightly. Bake for 5-6 hours until the leather feels a bit spongy but doesn't give way when you touch it. If there are any wetter spots, it's not done yet.
STEP 6: Use scissors to cut into strips, roll and enjoy! You can store for up to a month at room temperature, or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Tips and FAQs
- Tips for even cooking:
- Spread the strawberry mixture into an even layer, but spread it a little bit thicker on the edges. The edges cook more quickly, and then can get rigid if spread too thin. If too much liquid pools in the center, you'll end up with overcooked edges and undercooked middle.
- Rotate your baking sheet ever hour or so, if you can.
- We cooked ours at 170˚F, which is the lowest a lot of home ovens go. Any hotter and it might be difficult to cook the leather evenly. You can definitely use a lower temperature if your oven goes as low as 140˚F or 150˚F. You'll just have to cook it longer.
- Make sure you scrape down the sides of your blender to ensure that all of your strawberry mixture is in the pan. If there's not enough mixture in your sheet pan, it will cook too quickly.
- Prop your oven door open slightly: Using a kitchen towel or oven mitt, prop your door open. This will help any moisture from the leather to escape.
- Convection: If your oven has convection, perfect! This will speed up the drying process. You'll want to check in more frequently to ensure it doesn't get overcooked.
- Wetting your parchment paper removes the stiffness from your paper, which will (mostly) prevent large wrinkles from forming in your leather as it cooks. Some wrinkling is inevitable.
- Bang your tray on your countertop a few times to remove excess air bubbles from the mixture.
- Some crispiness around the edges is almost inevitable with oven cooking. Those pieces will still be delicious, but will be hard to roll up.
- Reviving crispy fruit leather: If you happen to overcook your leather, spray it with a spray bottle of water or pat it down with a damp towel and wait a while. Keep repeating this process until the leather is pliable.
- Spirulina does have a bit of a taste, but we find the small quantity used here will not affect the flavor. The cooking process also cooks out a lot of the flavor of the spirulina. You can also just use a handful of blueberries or blackberries instead, though the flavor won't be as intense, and you leather will split in the areas where the colors meet. It still tastes delicious, but doesn't look quite as nice.
- A lot of fruit leather recipes on the internet say to wait until your leather is no longer sticky to remove it from the oven. We've found this to be questionable advice, as our leathers are typically a bit sticky when done. If you wait until there's no stickiness at all, it'll be overcooked.
- A better way to tell if your leather is done is to give it a little touch in the center - if you can't feel any wetness beneath the top of your leather and it's been longer than five hours, you're probably good to go.
Storage
You can store this homemade strawberry fruit leather at room temperature for up to a month. For maximum freshness (and to prevent the leather from going stale), we suggest using Zwilling Fresh & Save vacuum seal containers!
They're our go-to for all things food storage and keep food fresh for up to 5x longer than regular storage containers. We use their vacuum seal freezer bags for super long term storage – it's such a great way to reduce food waste. This is the 32-piece starter set that we have.
For extra long storage, you can keep this strawberry fruit leather in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Related Recipes
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Recipe
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Strawberry Fruit Leather
- Total Time: 5 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This homemade strawberry fruit leather looks just like the childhood snack you remember, and it's super easy to make with just 5 all-natural ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh strawberries, hulled (~460g)
- 1 medium-sized honeycrisp apple, peeled and diced (160g or 1 ½ cups diced)
- ¼ cup honey (84g)
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice (~1 large lemon or 43g)
- Optional: ½ teaspoon blue spirulina (or a handful of blueberries or blackberries*)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to its lowest temperature (ours was 170˚F).
- Add strawberries, apples, honey, and lemon juice to a blender and blend until completely smooth. You shouldn't see any seeds.
- Optional: soak a piece of parchment paper in water for a minute or two, dry it with a kitchen towel, and place it onto a rimmed 13x18" baking sheet. Wetting the parchment paper will help the fruit leather stick better. You can also use a silpat, but you won't get that classic peel-away paper characteristic.
- Pour about 90% of your strawberry mixture into the sheet pan, and spread it out from the center towards the sides, so the sides are slightly thicker than the middle. Since the fruit leather dries from the outside in, the outsides will cook faster than the middle. If you leave too much pooled in the center, it will still be wet by the time the edges start to get crispy.
- Add the spirulina to the remaining strawberry mixture and blend or whisk together. You can also use a handful of blueberries or blackberries to color this mixture. We tested it several times with fruit, and it always split slightly in the sections where the two colors meet, which is why we opted for spirulina. It still tastes good, but won't look as nice.
- To create those tie-dye swirls, swirl your blue strawberry mixture on top of your red. Use a chopstick or knife to first make lines outward from the middle, then swirl in a circular pattern.
- Transfer to oven and use a dish towel or oven mitt the prop open the oven door slightly. Bake for 5-6 hours until the leather feels a bit spongy but doesn't give way when you touch it. If there are any wetter spots, it's not done yet.
- Use scissors to cut into strips, roll and enjoy! You can store for up to a month at room temperature, or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Notes
Bang your tray on your countertop a few times to remove excess air bubbles from the mixture.
Some crispiness around the edges is almost inevitable with oven cooking. Those pieces will still be delicious, but may be hard to roll up. You can cut off the super crispy sections and eat separately.
Reviving crispy fruit leather: If you happen to overcook your leather, spray it with a spray bottle of water or pat it down with a damp towel and wait a while. Keep repeating this process until the leather is pliable.
Rotate your baking sheet every hour or so, if you can.
We cooked ours at 170˚F, which is the lowest a lot of home ovens go. Any hotter and it might be difficult to cook the leather evenly. You can definitely use a lower temperature if your oven goes as low as 140˚F or 150˚F. You'll just have to cook it longer.
Prop your oven door open slightly: Using a kitchen towel or oven mitt, prop your door open. This will help any moisture from the leather to escape.
Convection: If your oven has convection, perfect! This will speed up the drying process. You'll want to check in more frequently to ensure it doesn't get overcooked.
Wetting your parchment paper removes the stiffness from your paper, which will (mostly) prevent large wrinkles from forming in your leather as it cooks. Some wrinkling is inevitable.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 hours
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 63
- Sugar: 14 g
- Sodium: 1.3 mg
- Fat: 0.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 16.6 g
- Fiber: 1.7 g
- Protein: 0.5 g
Whitney Pascual says
These are so good! Thank you so much! My kids love them! I made strawberry and raspberry! Wetting the parchment paper worked out nicely! We will definitely make them weekly.
Lexi says
So glad to hear that! 🙂
Nishat says
Hi, how do you store them?
Lexi says
You can store this at room temperature for up to a month. There's more storage information in the blog post above under the section titled "storage"!
Cori says
The fruit leather itself seemed to turn out, but I followed the tip about soaking the parchment in paper and it ended up MAKING the fruit leather stick. Pretty heartbroken because the recipe itself seemed great and the fruit leather smelled amazing but I couldn’t manage to peel any of the parchment off at all to salvage anything.
Brent Harrison says
That's disappointing - we tested it several times with different parchment paper and never had it stick - wet, dry, or otherwise. Is there any chance you used wax paper instead of parchment paper?
Angel says
Is the lemon juice necessary for texture, or is it only for flavor?
Lexi says
flavor!
Kayli Johnson says
Any idea what temp/ time to use for a dehydrator instead of oven?
Marisa McCleve says
Mine never really cooked. It’s been in for 12 hours still super wet and liquidy..
Lexi says
Hi Marisa, I'm very surprised to hear that. Did you use the same size sheet pan? My only thought is if the sheet pan is a lot smaller, the mixture would be much thicker and it wouldn't cook the same.
Aimee Klink says
After making the fruit leather how long is it good for? Should it be kept in the pantry or fridge?