Homemade Blueberry Fruit Leather

We have campsite reservations for this coming Friday and Saturday nights, so rain or shine we are going camping. This is going to be Blaze's first time camping and he's been looking forward to it for weeks now, so I want to make this a fun experience for him. Right now I'm planning what food to take along. So far we have marshmallows to toast over an open fire, chocolate bars and graham crackers so we can turn the marshmallows into s'mores, and hot dogs. Also, last night I made a batch of homemade blueberry fruit leather to take along.


Blueberry Fruit Leather


1 1/2 Cups of clean fresh blueberries

2 Tablespoons of maple syrup

1 1/2 Cups of apple sauce


1. Combine the blueberries and maple syrup in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly.





2. After 5 or 6 minutes the blueberries will have turned into a vibrantly colored syrup. Remove from heat and let it cool for about 10 minutes.



3. Pour the blueberry syrup into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add the apple sauce to the blender and blend to mix everything together.



4. Spray the bottom and sides of a jelly-roll pan with non-stick baking spray and then pour the blueberry mixture onto the tray and spread it out evenly.

5. Bake on the "warm" oven setting or 150 degrees F., with the oven door ajar about an inch ( I used a folded up piece of foil to keep the door from fully closing) for 7 1/2 hours (yes, that really did say 7 1/2 HOURS. The easiest way to do this, is to stick it in the oven just before you go to bed and set your alarm to wake you up in 7 1/2 hours. Let's face it, if you have kids, you probably weren't going to get 8 hours of sleep anyway).

When finished baking, the fruit leather will easily peel out of the pan.



It can be rolled up and sliced with a knife to make fruit roll-ups or it can be cut into other shapes using a pair of scissors.



Since my obsession for the past couple weeks has been cute bento lunches, here is a use for the fruit leather if you are making a special lunch for a child's birthday or other gift giving holiday:



The fruit leather is flexible enough to tie in a bow and was much easier to work with than the store-bought fruit roll-ups, which tend to tear and to stick to my fingers. The thin strips of fruit leather are attached under the little square of sticky rice by applying a tiny bit of water and pressing it firmly together.