HOW TO MAKE FRUIT LEATHERS.

Fruit leathers, often known as roll-ups, are a wholesome, carry-anywhere snack. Both children and adults like them, and since they are portable and lightweight, they are ideal for lunchboxes and hiking trips.

INSTRUCTIONS

Begin with really ripe fruit. Fruits like pears and apples should be peeled and cored.
Other fruits like apricots and peaches should also have their pits removed (you may also peel them for smoother fruit leather, but it’s not necessary).

Cut the fruit into pieces about 1 inch. Fill the bottom of a double boiler with an inch of water (you can make a makeshift double boiler by placing a large heatproof mixing bowl over a saucepan of water). In the top of the double boiler, place the fruit.

When the fruit is mushy and a thermometer reads 160°F, cook it for 15 to 20 minutes with the lid on after bringing the water to a boil. Before using fruit to make fruit leather, it must be heated to this internal temperature in order to eradicate any possible microorganisms.

Give the fruit five minutes to cool (take it off of the bottom of the double boiler).
Before using either the oven or the dehydrator technique below, purée it in a blender or food processor.

WITHIN A DEHYDRATOR

Use parchment paper, plastic wrap, or nonstick dehydrator sheets to line the trays of your dehydrator.

In the middle of each tray, place 1 cup of fruit purée. Spread it out with a spatula until it is 1/8 inch thick.
until it measures 1/8 inch thick.

Dehydrate for 4 to 10 hours at 140 °F. Because different fruit purees have varying densities, there is a significant range in time. Check again after 4 hours. When the fruit leather is transparent, slightly tacky to the touch, and easily pulls away from the nonstick sheet, it is finished.

Allow the fruit leather to cool to room temperature before wrapping it in waxed, parchment, or plastic wrap.

FROM THE OVEN

Use parchment paper or plastic wrap to line a baking pan. Subtly tuck the baking sheet’s edges under. A different option is to gently coat it with vegetable oil.

A 12 x 17-inch baking dish can handle two cups of fruit purée. Spread the purée 1/8 inch thick using a spatula.

Lower the oven’s temperature to between 140 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit. For four to ten hours, dry the fruit leather. Because different fruit purees have varying densities, there is a significant range in time.

Check again after 4 hours. When the fruit leather is transparent, slightly tacky to the touch, and easily pulls away from the nonstick sheet, it is finished.

Allow the fruit leather to cool to room temperature before wrapping it in waxed, parchment, or plastic wrap.

HOW TO USE CANNED FRUIT TO MAKE FRUIT LEATHERS

When the fresh fruit harvest season begins, this is a fantastic method to finish up the leftovers of the previous year’s canned fruit.
You may use fruit that has already been puréed right out of the jar, such as pear butter or applesauce. Simply go on with the oven or dehydrator technique of preparing fruit leathers, step 4.

Allow them to drain in a colander for a few minutes if you are dealing with bigger pieces, such as canned peach halves. Before draining, rinse any fruit that was canned in a sugar syrup with water.

In a blender or food processor, purée the drained fruit. One of the aforementioned ways of making fruit leather continues in step 4.

Paste of quince

READY IN 10 MINUTES LENGTH OF COOKING: 3 hours TIME FOR DRAINING:

2 hours
TIME TO DRY: 8–12 hours TIME TO CHILL:

4 hours Approximately 1 pound of yield
The humble, pale quinces that are in season in the late autumn are transformed into a glittering Christmas food present with a rich red hue and pleasantly acidic flavor by this paste, known as membrillo in Spain.

Quince paste may also be used as a spread as it is sturdy enough to be thinly sliced. It often goes well with a salty, aged cheese like manchego, but it also tastes great for breakfast with cream cheese and toast or bagels.

INGREDIENTS

Quinces weighing 312 pounds, or around 4 giant quince fruits
Water
2 lbs. of sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Wash the quinces and peel them, keeping the skins. Slice the quinces in half, remove the cores, and combine the cores with the peels you’ve set aside. Slice the quince fruit, which has been peeled and cored, into 1- to 2-inch pieces.
Tie the quince peels and cores in a clean fabric produce bag, butter muslin, or cheesecloth. You want fluids to be able to contact all of the peels and cores, so don’t tie them up too tightly. They contain a significant amount of pectin, which is what we’re looking.
Place the quince pieces in a big pot together with the bundle of cores and skins.
Add water until they are covered by approximately an inch. Over high heat, bring the ingredients to a boil. Then, lower the heat and simmer the mixture for one to eleven and a half hours, or until the fruit is soft and mushy.
Remove the bundle of peels and cores with tongs. The leftover quince fruit should be strained through a second layer of cheesecloth placed in a colander or a strainer with a very fine mesh. You may wish to place a large basin or pot below to capture the liquid that drops out; you can use it to produce an extraordinarily fragrant, jewel-toned quince jelly by following the standard jelly-making instructions in the Sweet Preserves chapter. Give the quince a full two hours to drain.
The cooked and drained quince mash should be puréed. The simplest method to accomplish this is in a food processor, but you could alternatively push the mash through a sieve or colander using the back of a spoon.
Weigh the purée of quince. It and an equal quantity of sugar should be added to a big saucepan.
If you don’t have a kitchen scale, you may weigh the quince and sugar instead of measuring them, although weighing produces superior results.
Stir in the sugar and thicken the quince purée over low heat. It will take around 112 hours to complete this. To dissolve the sugar at initially, you’ll need to whisk regularly. Once the sugar has dissolved, you may stop stirring after 5 minutes and wait until the quince truly begins to thicken at the end of simmering. When the paste clings to a wooden spoon, it is finished. Up addition, the quince is ripe if you run a wooden spoon over the bottom of the pot and it leaves a clean path that does not immediately fill in with quince. As the quince paste reaches this point, be careful to stir often to prevent burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot.
The quince, which was initially the shade of light apple flesh, will change to a rich pink hue as it cooks.
Lightly brush some vegetable oil in a 9-inch baking dish. Spread the quince paste evenly across the pan while it is still warm. It needs to be around 112 inches thick. Before moving on to the next stage, wait for the paste to cool fully in the pan.
Take everything out of the dehydrator except the bottom tray in order to dry the membrillo in it. Set the dehydrator to 125°F and place the baking dish with the quince paste on the bottom tray.
Put the quince paste dish in the oven and preheat it to 125°F to dry the membrillo there. Put your oven on the lowest setting if it doesn’t go that low (many don’t), and prop the door open with a dishtowel or the handle of a wooden spoon.
The quince should be dried for eight hours or overnight so that its surface is glossy and not tacky to the touch.
Place the quince paste baking dish in the fridge and keep it there,
Place the quince paste baking dish in the refrigerator and let it alone for 4 hours.
Trim the quince paste’s edges using a table knife. Invert it onto a platter after placing one on top. You have two options: either cut the membrillo square into logs that are about the size of a stick of butter and then wrap each log individually in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Quince paste will remain fresh in the fridge or other cold storage for at least three months after being packaged.