Peach Fruit Leather
Peach season in Southern Utah is upon us. They're so celebrated here that I haven't seen a festival bigger than Peach Days. It makes sense since peaches have been a large part of the culture for generations upon generations. We even attended the 4th of July parade in Hurricane, UT, and found that it was a shorter, smaller affair.
Okay, so we all know how it goes. Some local advertizes that they're selling their fresh produce and you just can't pass up on it. In this case, I didn't see that ad myself, but my really close friend Kristen did. And she called me at 9 in the morning, while I'm still in bed just laying there staring at my phone trying to get my eyes to wake up. We drove the 10 minutes it took to get to this guy's house, and he was out in his field picking peaches and apricots. Before I know it, I'm giving this guy all of my money and walking away with about 10lbs of peaches. He was incredibly honest and told us that the type of peaches he had were a little more on the tart side, and that the sweeter kind would be ready at the end of the year. This was not an issue for us, we just wanted the damn peaches.
I tried a peach once I got home, and he was right, it was quite tart. I prefer my fruit on the sweeter side, so I had to decide what I was going to do with 9 3/4lbs of peaches. Should I bake a pie? Make a cobbler? Try my hand at canning? Nah. I haven't used my dehydrator in ages, so peach leather it is!
As far as food goes, you're only going to need the peaches cut in half and pitted, and honey. In batches (about 2-3 peaches per batch), blend peaches with 3 tablespoons of honey. It's really your choices whether or not you want to leave the skin on, I chose to keep it on. Transfer to larger container, I used a large juice jug with a pour spout on it. Once you have one batch left to blend, take a quick taste test to see if you will need to add more honey for sweetness. I did end up having to add about a quarter of a cup more, due to the peaches being more on the tart side.
After the blending is complete, set up your dehydrator with the fruit leather trays. If you don't have fruit leather trays, cut a piece of parchment paper to fit inside of the trays, making sure to go up to the edge at the very least to prevent spillage. And make sure you're leaving the hole in middle of the trays open for air flow. Use some spray oil to give a thin coat to your trays to make removal easy. Evenly spread on the mixture and turn on your dehydrator.
My batches took anywhere from 6-8 hours to finish, some I might have poured a little thicker than others. The best way to know when it's done is to touch the top of the leather. It should be sticky, but not indent or stick to your finger. The edges should be harder than the middle part, but if you leave it out on the counter for a couple of hours, it will soften up.
You can also make this in the oven. Pre-heat your oven to 285F, spread the mixture on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake for 3-4 hours, checking every 20 minutes after 2 hours as each oven is different. My oven can be incredibly tempermental and awful.
Cut into pieces, or roll into the parchment paper, and store in the fridge. They're great snacks for at home or on the go, incredibly easy to make and kids absolutely love it!
Let us know what you think, and if you give it a try send us photos! Down below are links to where you can find what dehydrator and fruit trays I used! They're a great deal on Amazon.com right now!
