Learn to make this no-sugar-added, thick (yet soft and pliable) strawberry fruit leather recipe. It includes a secret ingredient with added health benefits!
My dried fruit leather used to always turn out kind of flat, and while it was leathery, it certainly wasn’t the chewy fruit leather I remember from the grocery store growing up. I’m going to save you a lot of trial and error by letting you in on a secret ingredient that transforms homemade fruit leather into this amazing rival to store-bought fruit rolls.
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Quick Look at This Recipe
- ✅ Recipe Name: Strawberry Fruit Leather
- ✅ Ready In: Less than 20 minutes hands on time, plus 14 hours drying time.
- ✅ Yield: 32 Servings
- ✅ Calories: 25
- ✅ Tools: Dehydrator (or oven with lined cookie sheets), blender (or food processor), saucepan, small mixing bowl, and ladle.
- ✅ Freezer Friendly: Yes – wrap in saran wrap and place in a freezer bag. Freeze up to 12 months.
- ✅ Why You'll Love It: Easy and delicious recipe with a secret ingredient that creates a perfectly pliable texture.
- ✅ Tip: Sugar creates little pockets of syrup that don't dehydrate evenly. To avoid a sticky mess, use white grape juice concentrate for a natural sweetener option.
What Makes This Recipe Unique?
When it comes to dehydrating food, making fruit leather is an easy beginner project. Whether you are a beginner or seasoned dehydrator, here is why you’ll love this recipe:
- Delicious - It’s no wonder strawberry is the top flavor choice for fruit leather. The flavor is out of this world, especially if you grow your own strawberries or source them fresh from a local farm.
- No Added Sugar - Just like my pumpkin fruit leather recipe, this strawberry fruit leather is naturally sweetened. I don’t like encouraging my family to eat more sugar than what’s already in their diet. I wanted to create a fruit snack without added sugar, and this strawberry fruit leather recipe fits the bill.
- Preserves the Taste of Summer - Here in the far north of Idaho, we only have fresh fruits and veggies during a few months of the year. When it comes to soft berries, we get busy preserving them. Our favorites are strawberry rhubarb jam, these incredible freeze dried strawberries, and this strawberry fruit leather recipe.
- Perfect Texture - Homemade fruit leather recipes often yield a thin, tough-to-chew product with brittle edges. However, with the addition of pectin, you can have a thick yet soft and chewy outcome all at the same time. Many pectins require sugar for activation, but if you use Pomona pectin, it is activated by calcium (provided with the purchase of their pectin package), which allows for the use of grape juice concentrate to make a no-sugar-added fruit leather.
- Versatile - While our top pick is strawberry, this recipe can be modified to make fruit leather with whatever fruit you happen to have on hand.
⭐ Featured Reader Review
@Akigirl2004 says: "Our first batch finished this morning, and they are delicious!!"
Key Ingredients
A full ingredients list, including measurements, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Strawberries – About 3 ½ pounds of strawberries (washed and hulled) will make approximately six cups of strawberry puree needed.
- Pomona’s Pectin – Pectin is my secret ingredient for a thick and pliable fruit leather, but is also a good source of insoluble fiber as an added health benefit. Pomona brand is critical to make a no-sugar-added fruit leather, and can be found in most grocery stores in small, expensive packets. I purchase my Pomona’s Pectin in bulk from Azure Standard. Additionally, most pectins will not gel when a batch is multiplied, but with Pomona Pectin, you can double or even quadruple this recipe, and the pectin will still set.
- White Grape Juice Concentrate – Grape juice concentrate not only facilitates a healthier fruit snack, but also yields a better finished product. Sugar does not dehydrate well, making it difficult to have an evenly dehydrated product. Even when it’s fully dehydrated, the sugar leaves it feeling damp and sticky with inconsistent pockets of syrup (check out these other foods that don't dehydrate well). Make sure your juice is pure concentrate without any added sugar or other ingredients.
Recipe Variations
Though we’re using our fresh-picked strawberries for this recipe, making fruit leather in the dehydrator is fantastic because you can swap out the fruit with whatever is in season!
Other fruits that work great for fruit leather are raspberries, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, and plums. In fact, you can dehydrate instead of canning my plum jelly recipe to make delicious fruit leather.
You can even sneak in vegetables such as carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes. When it comes to “veggie” fruit leather, our family’s favorite is pumpkin fruit leather.
When customizing this recipe, just remember that some fruits (or vegetables) have more water content than others, so they may take longer to dehydrate.
Recipe Instructions
Step 1: Puree washed and hulled strawberries in a blender, and measure out six cups of puree.
Step 2: Prepare calcium water according to package instructions. Add four teaspoons of calcium water to the berry puree and mix well.
Step 3: Transfer fruit mixture to a heavy-bottomed saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Step 4: Meanwhile, in a clean blender, add 2 cups of white grape juice concentrate and turn on low speed. Slowly add the powdered pectin and mix well for about two minutes.
Step 5: Prepare dehydrator trays to have at the ready. This next step moves quickly!
Step 6: Once the berry puree has been brought to a simmer, keep the heat on. Add the grape juice concentrate mixture and stir for a full minute. Remove from the heat and ladle the mixture onto the dehydrator trays. Carefully place the trays in the dehydrator.
Step 7: Dehydrate on low (110°F-115°F) for about 14 hours. This will vary depending on the thickness. Keep in mind that the texture of dehydrated foods changes after they have cooled, so when checking your fruit leather for doneness, always let the leather cool completely first.
Step 8: Cut cooled fruit leather into strips (or cute shapes using a cookie cutter), and roll up using parchment paper.
Storage Instructions
After you cool your fruit leather, cut it into strips, and roll it up with parchment paper, you will need to store it in an airtight container. Fruit leather is best kept in a cool and dry place away from direct light.
At room temperature, your fruit leather will last one to two months. You can extend the shelf life to a couple of months if stored in the refrigerator, or up to a year in the freezer.
Recipe Tips
- Fruit leather will absorb smells, so make sure your storage container is clean and does not have any residual smell from prior foods or cleaning solutions. I like to use non-porous containers such as glass canning jars.
- If you accidentally overdry your fruit leather, don’t throw it out! Grind it into a powder and add it to your favorite green smoothie recipe.
- If you are overwhelmed during harvest season, freeze your fruit and make fruit leather in the off-season.
- If you are using frozen fruit, thaw it in a bowl in the refrigerator overnight before you make your fruit leather.
- Only use Pomona’s Pectin for this recipe. I purchase my Pomona’s Pectin in bulk from Azure Standard. If you’re a first-time Azure Standard customer, use coupon code “HOMESTEADINGFAMILY15” at checkout for 15% off your order of $100 or more!
- The silicone dehydrator sheets that are meant for fruit leather are really handy and definitely recommended for this recipe.
- If your mixture is thinner, you may want to check on your fruit leather after about 8 hours or so. If your mixture is thicker, check after 14 hours, then check every hour after that until they are done and no longer sticky in the middle.
- To check if the fruit leather is done, lift it off the silicone sheet. It should come off in one large sheet, or it may tear, but there should be none that is sticky or still soft like jam.
FAQs
While strawberry is the most popular flavor, there are many different fruits (and vegetables) you can use to make fruit leather, such as raspberries, cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums, pears, apples, carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes. When it comes to “veggie” fruit leather, our family’s favorite is pumpkin fruit leather.
Strawberry leather is pureéd and dehydrated strawberries that result in a leather-like, yet chewy consistency.
Most commercially prepared fruit leather has more added sugar than actual fruit, and is certainly not healthy. When you make homemade fruit leathers, you can choose natural sweeteners for a healthier alternative.
Yes! When using frozen strawberries, just thaw them in a bowl overnight before making your fruit leather.
Did you try this strawberry fruit leather recipe? If so, please leave a star ⭐ rating and your comments in the recipe card below. Then snap a photo and tag us on social media @homesteadingfamily so we can see!
Strawberry Fruit Leather Recipe
Equipment
- High Powered Blender or Food Processor
- Heavy Bottom Sauce Pan
- Large Ladle
- Silicone Dehydrator Sheets We love these silicone dehydrator sheets.
- Dehydrator I use the Excalibur, but you can check out my dehydrator comparison to help you choose the right one for your homestead.
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 4 Teaspoons Pomona's Pectin
- 4 Teaspoons Calcium Water comes with Pomona's Pectin
- 3.5 Pounds Strawberries washed and hulled
- 2 Cups White Grape Juice Concentrate
Instructions
- Puree washed and hulled strawberries in a blender and measure out six cups of puree.
- Prepare calcium water according to package instructions, add four teaspoons of calcium water to the berry puree and mix well.
- Transfer the fruit mixture to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, with a clean blender, add 2 cups of white grape juice concentrate and turn on low speed.
- Slowly add the powdered pectin and mix well for about two minutes.
- Prepare dehydrator trays to have at the ready. These next steps move quickly!
- Once the berry puree has been brought to a simmer, keep the heat on, add grape juice concentrate mixture, and stir for a full minute.
- Remove from heat and ladle mixture onto the dehydrator trays.
- Carefully place trays in the dehydrator.
- Dehydrate on low (110°F-115°F) for about 14 hours. Depending on the thickness, this will vary. Keep in mind that the texture of dehydrated foods change after they have cooled, so when checking your fruit leather for doneness, always let the leather cool completely first.
- Cut cooled fruit leather into strips (or cute shapes using a cookie cutter), and roll up using parchment paper.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- Fruit leather will absorb smells, so make sure your storage container is clean and does not have any residual smell from prior foods or cleaning solutions. I like to use non-porous containers such as glass canning jars.
- If you accidentally overdry your fruit leather, don’t throw it out! Grind it into a powder and add it to your favorite green smoothie recipe.
- If you are overwhelmed during harvest season, freeze your fruit and make fruit leather in the off-season.
- If you are using frozen fruit, thaw it in a bowl in the refrigerator overnight before you make your fruit leather.
- Only use Pomona’s Pectin for this recipe. I purchase my Pomona’s Pectin in bulk from Azure Standard. If you’re a first-time Azure Standard customer, use coupon code “HOMESTEADINGFAMILY15” at checkout for 15% off your order of $100 or more!
- The silicone dehydrator sheets that are meant for fruit leather are really handy and definitely recommended for this recipe.
- If your mixture is thinner, you may want to check on your fruit leather after about 8 hours or so. If your mixture is thicker, check after 14 hours, then check every hour after that until they are done and no longer sticky in the middle.
- To check if the fruit leather is done, lift it off the silicone sheet. It should come off in one large sheet, or it may tear, but there should be none that is sticky or still soft like jam.
