Fruit Leather

My kids love fruit leather.  And so does Jeff.  Me, not so much.  Finally, something for me to bake that I don't eat half of the batter and then the rest of the cookies and/or cake by myself at 2am.
I used a combo of these two recipes (but I forgot the lemon juice and I am super bummed about that).  The kids loved to help and actually ate it when it was done the next day.  Yes, guys, before you get too excited about this recipe, you must realize that it takes 8-10 hrs on some recipes and 16 hrs on others.  I cooked it for 8 hrs and then left it in the oven for the rest of the night and it ended up ok.  Fear that my house would catch on fire in my sleep was definitely on my mind...luckily we made it with some fruit leather to spare (i may end up cooking while I am asleep more often...).
First you cook your fruit and water on the stove

then let your kid play in the hamper until one of them ends up almost cracking their head open and crying...

Then cover it for 15 min and mash it up and put it in a blender to puree it.

Quickly enlist a good helper to stir it for you. And a good taste tester to try it out for you. (add sugar or splenda or agave if necessary)


Then pour it out onto parchment paper in a shallow baking dish.  Spray the parchment paper well.

cook on the lowest temp your oven will go for 6-8 hrs.

Turn it off in the middle of the night and leave it in the oven until you wake up :)

cut it into pieces and let your kids go to town

We tried to roll them up but I don't think we were really doing it right.

I definitely recommend it. And we had some of the liquid fruit mixture left over that I think I may make into a blueberry syrup.
Here's to a productive all nighter...