Fruit Leather

My next idea for all those grapes was fruit leather. My Grandma always used a dehydrator, so I thought I might have to buy one. Happily, I was wrong. A quick search of the internet ensured me that all I needed was the oven and a lot of time.

Since the drying process takes 8-10 hours in the oven, I prepared the grapes one day then dried the next. Once again, the longest part of the preparation process was to wash and de-stem the grapes. I started with about 10 cups of grapes which turned into 8 cups once pureed. After pureeing, I put the grapes into the fridge and left overnight.

First thing the next morning, I preheated the oven. Most recipes suggest 150 degrees, but my oven only goes as low as 170. Then I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a bit of lemon juice and stirred.

I poured the mixture onto plastic (microwavable Saran Wrap) lined cookie sheets. (Wet the cookie sheets to help plastic stick.) Each cookie sheet held 4 cups of the grape mixture.

I put the trays into the oven on the middle racks, making sure the plastic did not touch the racks or cover the fruit.

My fruit leather took 8 1/2 hours to dry.

I rolled the leather as one piece using the plastic wrap on the cookie sheet, then cut it into individually sized portions.

It is super, duper sweet and all natural.