We had a lot of rhubarb in the garden this year and I was trying to come up with ways to use it when I decided to try Rhubarb/Strawberry Fruit Leather.
I experimented and came up with a very delicious leather – which I am actually eating as I type. It is not very sweet, just the way I like stewed rhubarb. Of course, if you want it sweeter it would be easy to adjust the recipe, but I prefer capturing the tartness of the rhubarb.
Ingredients
5 cups (1136 mL) rhubarb
3 cups (681 mL) strawberries
1/2 cup (113 mL) maple syrup
1/4 cup (57 mL) honey
Two dashes of cinnamon
Steps
Cut up the rhubarb into 1 cm or 1/2 inch pieces and add to a pot. Add enough water so that the rhubarb is about 1/2 covered. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until the rhubarb breaks down. (At this point, this is the same as making stewed rhubarb.) Add the strawberries (fresh or frozen) and cook until soften. Using an immersion blender, blend this mixture until it’s smooth. Add the maple syrup, honey and cinnamon and stir well.
Let the mixture cool for a while so it thickens a bit. Spread it thinly on the dehydrator trays. Set the temperature to 60-62 Celsius or 140-145 Fahrenheit for about 8+ hours.
If you have any leftover sauce, spread it on toast or pour over ice-cream. Very yummy.
Note: Cover your trays with parchment paper so the fruit doesn’t pick up the flavours from the last thing you dehydrated on the tray.
You can make fruit leather in the oven as well.
When the leather is done, peel it off the trays and cut it into individual servings. We use scissors. Then roll up the pieces in waxed paper and put them in a Ziploc.
Freeze until camping. Leaving it in the freezer is the hardest part of making this leather.