Homemade Apricot Fruit Leather the Easy Way

It’s apricot season in Utah (mid-July) and when I’m lucky enough to get a bunch of apricots from family or neighbors I gladly take a full box or two. As a child, my mom would try to get me to eat apricots from our apricot tree and I was not too fond of the skin’s texture when eating them whole. I’ve now found the easiest way to get apricots into my belly without reliving the childhood trauma of eating them whole. It is making them into fruit leather. Making them into apricot fruit leather is so easy. I’m going to share with you how I do it, so you can quickly and easily make a 100% fruit leather, with no added sugar, no boiling, no preservatives or added colors. You’ll wish you’d learned this sooner.  

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How to Easily Make Apricots into Fruit Leather

Step One

Find a box or three of fresh apricots. I calculated using 40-50 apricots per batch which does approximately 6 trays simultaneously. This year I got 3 boxes which gave me two and a half batches. I gather them in old Amazon boxes or the short cardboard trays used for canned goods that I get so many of with case lot sales. If you aren’t offered any fresh apricots, I’ve seen many listing on my local Facebook groups for free if you pick them. Keep an eye out as you’re running errands around town because I’ve also seen them at fruit stands and in front of random houses this time of year.

Step Two

Gather your supplies:

• Food Dehydrator – The Cosori Food Dehydrator is similar to but less expensive than, the Excalibur dehydrator. I have been satisfied with my Cosori dehydrator for the last two years and have dried whole fruits, sliced fruits, and fruit leathers in it. Before settling on the Cosori brand, I looked for the Magic Aire II. My aunt helped me start making fruit leather several years ago and I borrowed her dehydrator, a Magic Aire II. I loved it because of the square trays, which I hadn’t seen before. It was so easy to use plastic wrap extended slightly over the edges of the rectangular, plastic trays. As they finished drying I would easily roll each leather up after taking them out and letting them cool. My only experience with dehydrators prior to borrowing my aunt’s was the circular dehydrators with holes in the middle of the tray. While they function the same, the adaptability of the rectangular trays to work for easy removal and wrapping of leathers was amazing and I was determined to get a dehydrator able to easily complete any type of food preservation.

A note about types of Dehydrators:

   Vertical Air Flow: Heating Element and Fan are located in the base of the machine. Flavors can be mixed together as the air moves from one type of food to another. Any liquids on the trays can make their way down to the heating element and fan, which can easily break the dehydrator. Trays will need to be moved up and/or removed at different times to ensure even drying of all trays. Most vertical air flow dehydrators don't have the option to control temperature or set a timer to turn off automatically.

   Horizontal Air Flow: Heating Element and Fan are located in the back of the machine. Different trays can maintain their distinct flavors as the air flows over each tray. Trays don't need to be moved around during the drying process. Anything that drips can easily be caught in the drip tray at the bottom with no harm to the heating element or fan. Have timers and temperature controls. This alone makes it worth the higher cost to me, because I can run my dehydrator while sleeping without worrying about over-drying my fruit leather.

• Silicone Trays – I purchased off-brand to save a few dollars and they have been great. They are easy to use and clean up. I’ve found that I don’t even use the plastic wrap like I did originally with my aunt’s because the silicone is so easy to get the leather out of after drying, even if it was a little too dry. I like to avoid plastic if possible and now I don’t even wrap them individually in plastic before storage. If (or should I say when) we’re running out the door and need our snacks I simply put several inside one plastic sandwich-sized bag for all of the family to eat.
  • Options: Parchment paper on top of metal trays. I’ve never tried this but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work to help make cleanup easy for metal trays. With the silicone trays I think it’s an unnecessary step and cost as there’s always the chance you’ll get the apricot puree over the edge of the parchment paper as you’re spreading it out and still have to wash the trays. Plus, I always tend to wash my trays after I use them anyway, so for those reasons I avoid parchment paper for fruit leathers.
  • Metal sheet trays, probably quarter-pan size to fit the dehydrator I have. Keep in mind they will be much deeper than the silicone trays and will take up more space in your dehydrator resulting in only three trays rather than six being done at once. They would work well for drying fruit slices, whole fruits, or fruit leather in the oven though and you could use any size sheet pan you own.

• Offset Spatula – Really, any spatula works but I love how easy it is to smooth the puree right up to sides of the silicone trays with an offset spatula.

• Mason Jars – I prefer wide mouth for ease when positioning the finished leather in the jars. Fruit leathers can be stored with or without the plastic wrap around each fruit leather. Because of the ease of the silicone trays, I don’t even bother with the plastic wrap. I use old canning lids (as opposed to getting new ones just for storing the leather) and screw them on tight to prevent air and moisture from getting into the fruit leather. Really, any airtight container works great for storage. For storage longer than a month, make sure they really are air-tight and store them in the freezer until you’re ready to eat them.

• Blender or Food Processor – Any decent blender you have will work great. I say “decent” because my first few blenders were the really cheap, like $15 cheap, blenders that didn’t work well and I threw away after a year. So, if you have a nice blender that costs a little more than $15, I think you’ll be okay.

• Colander – Something to rinse your apricots in. A clean sink also works great if you don’t have or want to get out a colander.

• Cutting board and Paring Knife – To use on the apricots that need a little cleaning up before throwing in the blender.

• Garbage Can – Take it out of your kitchen drawer or out from under your sink cupboard to have it easily accessible. One hand can throw the pit straight into the garbage while the other throws the apricot into the blender. Takes away half the cleanup by throwing them away rather than leaving them on your cutting board or in your colander.

• The Absolute Best Reference Guide – So Easy to Preserve by the Cooperative Extension University of Georgia Pricey? YES! Worth every penny? Also YES!  I got this book when I took the Master Preservation Class at the Utah State University SLC Extension 8 years ago and I’ve pulled it out several times each year as I reference how to properly preserve food. It covers topics like canning, pickling, freezing, drying, and jams/jellies. It’s at least 1.5-2″ thick and will keep your family safe with trustworthy information. Not that online isn’t safe, but with food, it’s always good to as a Registered Dietitian (like me) or go to reputable sources and it’s so much faster to pull out a book than it is to search online and sift through all the information, hoping you’ve found all the correct information.

Step Three:

Prepare your apricots.

I’ll start with things I don’t take the time to do:

• Boil – Boiling is only necessary if freezing them with the skins on.
• Add lemon juice, lime juice, citric acid, etc to prevent discoloration. Again, I’m fine with them darkening and haven’t found that they look unappealing. They will continue to darken even after drying, although at my house they’re eaten quickly enough that the darkening never becomes an issue. We eat all ours up within a month. If you want to keep your apricot leather a bright color, mix each two cups of apricot puree with 2 tsp lemon juice OR 1/8 tsp (375 mg) ascorbic acid.
• Add sugar, maple syrup, or any other sweetener. My family and I enjoy the natural tartness of the apricots and don’t find any need to add additional sugars.
• Add water – I’ve never added it and my leather tastes delicious and isn’t too thick.

The Easiest and Quickest Way to Make Apricot Leather:

1. Wash hands – Make sure my children wash their hands before they begin helping me, and again before they start helping me again after they walk away for a few minutes.
2. Wash apricots in a colander (or sink) and bring them over next to your blender (or food processor). Pull the apricots in half. To do this easily, put your thumbs where the stem once was and pull it apart. You’ll get two halves of the apricot and the pit in the middle. If the inside is clean (no mold to clean out) I throw both halves in the blender. To be honest, I don’t even always pull the fruit exactly in half. I usually throw the apricot in with the two halves still connected at the bottom. It’s faster and the blender will do the work for you shortly.
3. Throw the pit that I’ve just taken out right into the garbage or into a dirty box or bowl to throw away easily at the end. I used to be lazy and leave them on a big pile on the cutting board but some would inevitably spill all over the floor when I went to throw them away. So, save yourself the time and hassle in the long run by getting a container to collect them all in.
4. Fill up the blender until full, or until you get enough for a batch for your size of dehydrator trays. In my case, these two are about the same so I just make as big of a batch as I can at the beginning. My blender stops measuring around 64 oz, but I fill past that and have found there’s usually a little extra to store in the fridge between batches.
5. Put the blender on medium and blend for 30-60 seconds. All you need is a smooth puree of fruit. I’ve found that smaller batches of apricots can be harder to get a really smooth fruit puree. In this case, I would add a little water or pureeing for longer if you don’t want larger chunks. Another option is adding fruit juice if you have any. Apple, mango, or pineapple all sound like delicious options. My family is okay with little bits of fruit chunks in our leathers, but keep in mind it will add to your dehydrating time so I will take the chunks out and eat them right away or put them back into the blender.
6. Pour or scoop your puree onto your silicone trays. I’ve found 1 3/4 cups of fruit leather fits nicely on my tray. You want a thin layer, approximately 1/8″ thick pureed fruit per the So Easy to Preserve. Mine ranges between 1/8-1/4″ thick and it works great. No matter how thick you pour purees onto your trays, be consistent on the thickness and keep an eye on the first batch. Be careful to keep the edges as thick as the middle because the edges dry first. It’s easy for the edges to be finished while the middle of the fruit leather still needs more time to dry.
7. Load up the trays into the dehydrator. Set the time and temperature if this is an option on your dehydrator. I love that mine has the option to turn off on its own, especially if I know I’m going to be out running errands or sleeping and don’t want to risk it being over-dried. Often my batches are going through the middle of the night as I seem to start a new batch in the afternoon after spending the coolness of the morning in the garden.
   • I start my timer at 12 hours but I usually check it around 10 hours. If you are worried that the leather might not need the full twelve hours and you’re going to bed or have to leave the house, simply set the timer for less time and check when you’re available. If it needs more time, you can re-start the dehydrator without any affect on the fruit leather. Eventually, you’ll get a feel for how thick you like your homemade fruit roll-ups and how long they need to dry.
8. Check on the fruit leather after 10+ hours. If you poured your fruit leather less than 1/8″ thick, check sooner.
9. Pull out the trays to let them cool when they’re done. This step is important because if put away while still hot they will create condensation in the container and grow mold.
10. Once they’re cool to the touch you can tear them up into the size you want. If you want them to be uniform in size and look really nice you can use clean kitchen scissors or a pizza cutter, on a cutting board — please not your silicone trays, to make them look really nice. I prefer to save time by ripping mine into thirds and wrapping them up. They are hardly ever torn straight, but they still taste delicious. I will say, if I give any away, I look for the more uniformly torn pieces of leather. One note on waiting to roll and store the fruit leather – don’t leave them too long because they’ll start to pick up any moisture in the air and you’ll have to dehydrate them a little again.
11. Roll them, starting with a very tight roll so you can fit as many into the mason jar as possible. I find the first few fruit roll-ups start to unravel a bit before there are a few stacked to hold them together. I prefer wide mouth jars for fruit leather because it’s easier to arrange them nicely and consequently to fit more into each jar. This is likely because I can push them in straighter to begin with. Either way, any jar and old canning lids work great. 
12. Tighten the lid to prevent any air from getting in. This helps your fruit leather last without getting moisture in the jar which will cause the dried apricot leather to mold. While sitting in the jar, it also allows for the strips to exchange moisture until the fruit leather strips have equal moisture levels.
13. Enjoy the fruits of your labor and start another batch if you have more apricots. If you have extra pureed apricots from the batch that didn’t fit on the trays simply put the lid on my blender and store it in the fridge. To prevent browning you can add ascorbic acid (1/8 tsp per two cups apricot puree) or lemon juice (2 tsp per two cups apricot puree). You can also try adding a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the puree in the blender, like you do with guacamole to prevent it from browning. Storing the extra puree in the fridge directly in the blender saves me from constantly doing dishes throughout the few days while making fruit leather.

How to Tell if Your Fruit Leather is Done:

• The surface of the fruit leather should look shiny but no longer wet.
• The middle of the fruit leather should remain firm when poked with your fingernail. If there is an indent left it needs more time. See picture below.
• The apricot leather pulls off the silicone tray easily without sticking. 
  • If your leather is too dry you will find it breaks as you roll it up. These little bits are my favorite to enjoy as I store my batch of apricot leather.

What to do with Extra Apricot Puree

Any extra apricots or apricot puree that won’t fill a full batch (or if you’re just tired of drying them into leather), you can use the puree in a smoothie, as a layer in a yogurt parfait, over some ice cream, or just eat the puree out of a blender with a spoon. If you make your own baby food, this is perfect to put into small containers to store in the fridge or freezer.

Two Batches a Day is Possible

If you’re really on top of things and don’t have any distractions, you could do two batches a day if you time it well enough. For example, if you start a batch around 8am and get it processed and cooled in time and another batch around 8pm. At this point in my life and with the inconsistency of summer living, which I am enjoying, I am lucky to get one batch a day done and find that after three days I’ve gotten through my couple of small boxes worth of apricots.

I love making apricot fruit leather for several reasons, but the biggest reason is that my children eat them like candy, and thankfully, in place of candy. My only wish is that the leather would last a little longer. It always happens that we’ve got four Mason jars tightly packed with fruit roll-ups and the next time I get into the cupboard to grab one they’re already gone. So, do yourself a favor and make your own fruit leather. You’ll soon wish you’d made more fruit leather during apricot season too!

Interested in other quick and easy ways to get more healthy food on your table? Learn about Sprouts and Microgreens.