Whenever my kids go grocery shopping with me they always ask for rollups and I always say no. ‘But why Mum? My friends have them all the time’. I’m on my mission to live a healthier life and one key area is teaching my children why certain foods aren’t good for them. Over the years I have just said no and not really explained why. But they have watched me yoyo diet and put on weight. They’ve seen how being overweight made me feel. I want them to learn young that too much sugar is unhealthy and unnecessary.
When I visited Melbourne a few months ago, my friend grabbed some apple leather from her purse and started snacking on it. She offered me some and I loved it. She explained to me the beauties of making her own fruit leather and how much her kids liked it. She uses a dehydrator to make hers. Instead I made some Strawberry Fruit Leather using the oven.
New note: I am now making my rollups in a dehydrator, can make more at once. I purchased my 9 tray Dehydrator here.
Attempt number one was a complete fail, I burnt it. I was following a recipe that said 1 punnet of strawberries, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Just tasting the burnt pieces I could tell the recipe needed tweaking.
I was determined to make it work, so went back to the grocery store and purchased some more strawberries. I blitzed one punnet of strawberries and 1 tablespoon of sugar in my new super cute mini KitchenAid Food Chopper*.
This is a nifty little chopper, it’s much like a food processor, but smaller, lighter and easier to clean.
Spread the puree onto a lined baking tray, using a spatula to spread evenly
Bake in the oven on the lowest temperature (mine is 60 degrees, fan forced) for 3 hours, or until all the fruit is dried and not sticky. I used a pizza cutter to slice and stored in an airtight container
The kids LOVED them and we have made them several times since, 2nd time I strained the strawberry puree through a sieve to remove some of the seeds.
PrintHomemade Strawberry Rollups Fruit Leather
Healthy lunchbox snack for the kids
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 10 mins
- Yield: 6
- Category: [url href="https://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/category/recipes/lunchbox-recipes/"]Lunchbox Snack[/url]
Ingredients
- 1 punnet strawberries
- 1 tablespoon, castor sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to lowest temperature
- Line a baking tray with baking paper
- Remove the leaves from the strawberries
- Place strawberries and sugar into mini chopper, and blitz until strawberries are smooth
- Pour strawberry puree onto baking tray
- Place in oven and cook for 3 hours or until the mix is dried and not sticky
- Chop into desired size and place in an airtight container
Notes
One punnet of strawberries only made 6 average sized roll ups. The oven was on for 3 hours. One would say, why bother? But I think knowing what is in these snacks for the kids is a great benefit and worth the time and effort. Double the quantity, 2 baking trays in the oven to ensure you are maximising all the space you have available in the oven.
* I was given this product for editorial consideration
67 comments
Hi Kat, I’m also on a healthier living kick and think it’s great that you are able to explain to your kids what’s healthy and why! If we have a hope of our next generation making better choices we need to give them knowledge.
Yum! These look so yummy! What a brilliant way to use beautiful, juicy strawberries! Thanks
These look delicious, I love strawberries :)!
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I saw punnets of strawberries really cheap at the grocers today, they were not in great condition so I didn’t get them. But now I’m thinking they’d be perfect for making roll ups with. Might have to go back tomorrow.
Love the recipe… but one question…. What is a Punnet? How many cups does it equal?….. From Nova Scotia, Canada 🙂
a punnet is 250g of strawberries 🙂
Hi a punit is the square plastic box that the strawberries come in 🙂
For those that have made these, I don’t have a mini chopper. Would blending in short bursts get a similar result, or completely the wrong consistency?
A blender would be fine.
Thank You so much. I am on the same mission. Strawberries are so cheap right now so will get right onto this.
Just wondering has anyone made these with no added sugar??? does the sugar really make a difference? and can you basically make it with any fruit???
If you’re American than yes, you will taste the absence of added sugar because you add sugar to everything! haha – kidding Americans, don’t hate me. I’ve done this without sugar and it’s great – to me:) You could always try stevia for low cal yet natural.
It’s so true though. I grew up in the U.S. but now live in Australia and every time I visit my family over there, I am shocked by sweetness of EVERYTHING! When I first came here though, I thought all the food was gross haha.
phew – I’m not alone! haha – I lived in America as a child too but had forgotten about that level of sweetness in food difference until I went back with my band recently and had some peanut butter. “Man this peanut butter tastes sweet!” then I read the label and saw HFCS! lol
Ahh America, I do love thee:)
SO glad to have this confirmed! I have been baking a lot of American recipes over the last year and they are all so horribly sweet! At first I thought there must be something wrong with my conversions to metric, but eventually came to the conclusion that Aussies just don’t like as much sugar! 🙂
Xylotol is a great sugar alternative too!!
If your worried about processed sugar try agave syrup or coconut sugar even maple syrup would work.
Yes I have made them with honey and they tasted great
I used a teaspoon of vanilla paste instead of sugar ?
They sound yummy and I would love to give some to my kids (I’ve never bought them roll-ups for the same reasons) but my Miss 5 is allergic to strawberries. Would love a recipe for it using apple if anyone has one? Pleeeeaaasseeee lol.
I was wondering if other fruit could be used too?
absolutely, I have tried it now with Apple, and that worked really well. I used strawberry and banana the other day, but it wasn’t the same texture ‘leather’ as pure strawberry.
did you cook the apple first?
I buy bulk bananas when they are on special puree them with no added any thing and my kids LOVE them. Some times I add natural yoghurt but then you have to keep them in the fridge (they also freeze really well too) I did try coconut milk once instead of the yoghurt but they were a bit weird and the kids didn’t like them as much.
How long did you cook the banana ones for please?
Did you have to cook the apple or did you just blitz it like the strawberries? Im going to try them this weekend using my bellini
What about frozen berries or would it make it harder to set ???tai
Do you think this would work with honey instead of sugar?? Honey sweetens, but also has many incredible physiological effects, making it very good for you 🙂 I
If you have a dehydrator then you can use things like yoghurt to make the leathers as well. I can remember my mum doing it for my lunch boxes when i was a kid. I might have to experiment and see if the yoghurt will have the same effect in the oven
Is a punnet the same as a pint? I never heard of a punnet before.
According to what I read is closely equivalent to a pint of strawberries. Someone on here said it is 250g. Maybe weigh a pint of berries to see how many grams it is and go from there? That to me would be the best way to handle this issue.
Punnet is just the little container that you buy them in.
The usual punnets of Strawberries bought from the supermarket is 250g a pint is 600ml.
You can make it without sugar just add some apple. It will make the strawberry go further. You can do the same with all sorts of fruit like pear, mango and kiwifruit
I tried this with frozen berries (blackberries and blueberries) – fail!
Again with apple and cinnamon – fail! 6 hours in the oven and still runny…
Any tips?
Ooh no Jo. Perhaps the frozen fruit has too much water in it. I use fresh fruit, for example strawberries are just pure pureed strawberries.
Perhaps you could thaw the frozen berries, boil to get the excess fluid out, let it cool then blitz them in a food processor and go from there? Not sure how much you would need to boil it down though. Just a thought…
You need to use a fibrous fruit like apples etc so blackberries and blueberries on their own won’t work without strawberries/apples/pear or even pumpkin. A punnet in woolies is 250g. I have a recipe at home that states 120 degrees with the door propped open with a wooden spoon slightly and between 2 and 10 hours? And it cooks the fruit first then puree’s then bakes? maybe play with the recipe a bit? I am going to try both and see how I go.
Fruit Roll Ups
I need to try these
How long will these last in a container?
How thick do you make it in the pan please? I burnt mine so thinking maybe I thinned it out too much?? Thanks.
I’m making these tonight but my oven is horrible! The lowest temp it has is 80°c but they’ve been in for 3 hrs and they’re still runny! I’ve used fresh strawberries
Fresh strawberries should be fine Danielle, I made them recently in a new oven of mine and they took far longer than I expected so I think every oven is different. How did they turn out in the end?
I gave up after 5 hrs 🙁
Ooh bugger… Ok i’ll do some serious looking into dehydrators and let you know what I come up with
Excellent idea, I’ll do it in a minute. Tks or sharing!!!
Worked a treat for us. Made a triple batch and it was perfect.
These look great. I always wonder about storage though. Do you keep them in the fridge? How long do they last? Can you freeze them? ALWAYS looking for stuff I can make in batches and freeze for lunchboxes 🙂
They are great, Gill. I keep them in an air tight container and they last few weeks. No need to freeze.
Hello, I took my kids strawberry picking and have ended up with three kilo strawberries! I’ve already made strawberry yogurt, ice cream, milk shakes etc. The fruit roll ups look great but if I make a stack of them do you know how long they last or if I can freeze them for lunch boxes? Many thanks, Kellie
Hi Kellie, They last few a few weeks so you will probably find you won’t need to freeze them. Kids love them!
Hi, do you know what I could use as alternative to caster sugar or stevia?
Louise i have been making them without sugar lately and they taste just as good.:)
Hi All, I have a brilliant sister-in-law who does the same with yoghurt but using a dehydrator. she buys in bulk when her children’s favourite flavours are on special and then lightly sprays her dehyrating mats (no holes) with oil (this makes it easier to remove at the enof the process), spreads the youghurt evenly over it and then dehydrates overnight on low and they’re ready the next day. she cuts them up into strips and roles them up but in bite size only as it can be quiet rich. Her kids love them and take them to school frozen ready for morning tea. I love them too – rather eat these than a chocolate after dinner!
Hi Jo,
Does she just use yogurt and nothing else to dehydrate? I just got a dehydrator for Chrissy! Do you (or your SIL) think this exact concept of pureed strawberries will work in the dehydrator too? Thanks!
Sorry Briony,
I was only a willing consumer so not always there for the start of the process, but I can’t see why not with the strawberries. I know she also does something similar with mango’s, and honey greek youghurt, so I guess the honey is the sweetner in that combo. Go nuts I say and try a few things to see what you like. I just loved the strawberry yoghurt leathers and frozen even berry – melt in the mouth healthy-ish treats. Good luck, don’t forget to spray with the oil, she has told me about her first few times doing it without and how bad the mess and waste was trying to get the leathers of the dehydrator discs. Happy cooking.
Hi All, I have a brilliant sister-in-law who does the same with yoghurt but using a dehydrator. she buys in bulk when her children’s favourite flavours are on special and then lightly sprays her dehydrating mats (no holes) with oil (this makes it easier to remove at the end of the process), spreads the youghurt evenly over it and then dehydrates overnight on low and they’re ready the next day. she cuts them up into strips and roles them up but in bite size only as it can be quiet rich. Her kids love them and take them to school frozen ready for morning tea. I love them too – rather eat these than a chocolate after dinner!
Hi – I have just bought a dehydrator – do you still just make your Fruit Leather the same as you have listed out above – ie. 1 punnet of strawberries & 1 tbls sugar? How long do you put in the dehydrator for? Thanks!
Hi Natalie, yes i make them exactly the same. I put them in the for around 3 hours.
I’m making these currently, I followed the recipe exactly… so I just poured directly onto the baking paper. Bad move? looks like it needed some grease or something, or will it just peel off when it completely dries out??
Thanks!
Hi Tracey, my sister-in-law uses a dehydrator but always uses an spray oil spray on her leathers tray to prevent it sticking, so yes perhaps try that next time. Only a light spray. Good luck.
Hello lovely people,
Does anyone have any combos they have tried and how much of each they would be happy to share. Thinking this will be great for Miss 4 🙂
Thanks for any help you can give
Could you do fresh apple and frozen berries? Would that work? And what sort of apples? Any? Or Granny Smiths?
I haven’t tried this Erin but I would imagine that it could work 🙂 If you give it a go please let me know how it works out. Good luck! Kat x
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