Fruit leathers are made from ripe or overripe fresh fruit that has been pureed in the blender, or from a cooked fruit sauce. Boiling apricots, peaches, pears or nectarines will help preserve their bright color, as it stops the enzyme action that causes browning. Sweet fruits do not require additional sugar, but tart fruit are often combined with a sweetener (try maple syrup or honey as an alternative to sugar). Fruit combinations are interesting. Adding ground almonds, coconut, or your favorite seeds makes the leathers more nutritious. Keeping the fruit skins or not is a matter of personal choice, but pears skins may be grainy, and peach skins are fuzzy, and may be objectionable. Seedy fruits like blackberries can be pureed in the blender, then strained through a cheesecloth.
Spread the puree evenly on solid trays that have been oiled (like coconut oil, or grape seed oil) about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick. Avoid the contact between acidic fruits and metal; line metal trays (or cookie sheets) with plastic food wrap. Shallow saucers can also be used as a mold for the leather. Dry at 135°F for 4 to 24 hours, until the center of the leather shape is no longer sticky but the leather still pliable. Note that some fruits like cherry and boysenberries will remain sticky even when they are dry. Remove the leather from the tray immediately while the leather is still warm to prevent sticking! Allow to cool. Tear the leather into portions and store in snack bags, or into clean glass jars, or roll in plastic wrap. It will keep for months properly stored in sealed packaging, in a dry cool place, away from daylight. Chew on the leather as is, or rehydrate to a jam consistency with a small amount of hot water.
Try a combination of apples and plums with cinnamon, apricots with nutmeg and almonds, pears with coconut.
See the article about Food Dehydrating.
Preserve cooked pumpkin puree as leather. Dry 2 cups of puree in view of making one pie; do not add spices to the puree as they may go rancid. To reconstitute, break the leather into pieces, put in a bowl and cover with water and let it stand before mixing into your pie recipe.
