Fermented Fruit Leather

This is a great way to add probiotics to your diet.

Fruit leather is basically blended fruit which is dehydrated to prevent spoilage and improve the chances of it being eaten.  It can be high in sugar content (depending on the amount of sugar in the fruit) and can provide a wide variety of vitamins and minerals if it is stored correctly. 

Fermented fruit leather also has probiotics in it which help your digestion and provide additional vitamins while making minerals more available to your body.

It can be made with any type of fruit and is easy to pack and eat on the run.

Equipment:

Ingredients:

Instructions:

If you are using store bought fruit wash thoroughly or peel off the skin. Cut the fruit up into small enough pieces to blend easily.

Put all ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth.  Taste the mixture and adjust for sweetness.

Pour the mixture onto silicone trays and place into the dehydrator.  If you are not using a dehydrator you can use the oven on at 110 degrees. 

Dehydrate until the leather is firm enough to peel off the silicone trays, usually about 24 hours depending on the humidity.  The oven method may take longer due to the lack of air circulation around the fruit leather. 

Once it is not sticky on the top anywhere remove it from the dehydrator.

You can either roll it up and fruit rollups or cut them into squares for fruit leather. 

Note:

Unless the fruit is organically grown it will have chemical residues on the skin.  Remove as much of this residue as possible by washing the fruit under running water or peeling the skin off the fruit. 

When dehydrating the fruit leather do not let the temperature get above 110 degrees.  This is because you want to preserve the active probiotics in the kefir or yogurt.  Dehydrating them will slow down their action but will not kill them.  Once the fruit leather is eaten the probiotics will be rehydrated and will reactivate, providing you with added probiotic benefits.