Applesauce Fruit Leather Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best apple to make homemade applesauce? ›

The best apples for applesauce are whatever apples you have on hand and need to use up. However, if you have a choice, we recommend using a combination of sweet and tangy varieties for the best flavor. Popular sweet varieties include Honeycrisp and Fuji, while popular tangy varieties include Granny Smith and Braeburn.

And in case you're wondering, varieties like Honeycrisp, Fuji, and McIntosh are the best apples for applesauce. How long will homemade applesauce last? It'll stay good for four to six days stored in the fridge. You could also can it to make it last longer, but that's a lesson for another day.

Conclusion

The resulting fruit leather has a moisture content of 10.84%, ash content of 0.31%, degree of acidity (pH) 4.01, the crude fiber content of 1.50%, has a very yellow color, strongly smells of pineapple, is very sour, and has a slightly chewy texture.

To check if fruit leather is done, lift the fruit leather off the silicone sheet, it should come off in one large sheet, or it may tear, but there should be none that is sticky or still soft like jam. Store fruit leather at room temperature, in the refrigerator, or freeze for long-term storage.

For applesauce, you essentially want the opposite—apples that will cook down and mash well to create a flavorful sauce. At the same time, avoid apples that are mealy in texture and turn to mush when cooked down. Many cooks avoid Red Delicious for that reason.

The mellow sweetness of toasted sugar adds complexity. Apple cider vinegar helps brighten cooked fruit. Using skin-on fruit improves both flavor and color in the finished product. Aromatics like cinnamon, orange peel, and rose water intensify the flavor of the apples.

Not only does the homemade version taste better, but it's way cheaper, too. We call that a win-win! Making homemade applesauce is a great way to use up that big bag of apples that's been sitting in your fridge for two weeks. (It's okay… we all do it.)

Homemade applesauce can be refrigerated for a week to ten days; it can also be frozen or canned for longer-term storage. Mott's recommends its applesauce to be used within ten days of opening.

It's normal for a little excess liquid at the top of your applesauce, but an odd color is a sign that it is spoiled. Mold is an obvious sign of spoilage, and the applesauce should be discarded immediately. What does it smell like? A quick whiff that gives off a sweet scent of applesauce means it is probably still good.

Most fruit or combinations of fruits can be used to make fruit leathers. Canned fruits can be mixed with pretreated fresh fruits. However, grapefruit and lemons are not recommended because they become bitter when dried.

Why is my fruit leather not drying? ›

To dry fruit leather, the water must move from the fruit leather to the surrounding air. If the surrounding air is humid, then drying will be slowed down.

Fruit and plant leather is more expensive than animal leather due to the technical effort required, but it is considerably simpler and more environmentally friendly to produce this leather in terms of the number of natural resources used.

You want your fruit leather to be set (and the middle of the pan will take the longest), but overcooking will result in brittle, candy-like fruit leather (still delicious, but not what we're going for).

It's a wonderful snack and a great way to preserve a bumper crop of fruit. Great news!… You can either dry your fruit leather out in the oven or in the sunshine. The sunshine method is my favorite because you can make a whole bunch at once without heating your oven in summer.

Gala. A crisp, sweet apple with a mild flavor, Galas have yellow-orange skin with red striping. They're among the best apples for applesauce, salads, eating out-of-hand, and pressing into cider.

I recommend using Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Fuji, or Gala. Don't use Granny Smith; they are too tart and firm for this recipe. Weigh your apples before coring and chopping.

Some examples are Golden Delicious, Fuji, Honeycrisp, McIntosh, and Gala. You can also mix different types of apples to get a balance of sweet, tart, and tangy flavors. Some tangy apples that work well for applesauce are Pink Lady, Rome, and Ida Red.