we recently busted out our new, fantastic food dehydrator, which was a bridal shower gift from jason’s amazing aunt and uncle!

we’ve used it for tons of things so far: sweet potato shreds, celery, greenbeans, pigeon peas, kidney beans, tomato paste, and venison jerky! delicious!

we’ve also started making our own fruit leathers and they are phenomenal. the only flavor i’ve made so far is cranberry. here’s the recipe:

i cook the cranberries down the exact same way my mom does when making cranberry sauce for thanksgiving, so this is her recipe, actually. i’ve just turned it into fruit leathers.

all 9 trays in the dehydrator get filled up when i start with 2 pounds of frozen cranberries. i cook these down on medium in a large saute pan. as they cook i add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. i also add a couple splashes of lemon juice to tone down the tart cranberry flavor. just these simple ingredients and you have the perfect fruit leather recipe!

i advise you to leave a lid on your concoction as it cooks so that your kitchen doesn’t end up splattered with pink dots! once you decide that most of the cranberries have cooked down, i cut it off and let it cool for about an hour. afterwards, it gets blended to smoothness in our food processor and gently spread onto saran wrap sheets laid out on top of the dehydrator trays.

a sheet of cranberry fruit leathers fresh out of the dehydrator

all 9 sheets of fruit leather, waiting to be sliced

your dehydrator should have directions telling you how thick to spread the jelly and how long to set your machine for, but i usually just eyeball it. i’ve notice that the fruit leathers i’ve made so far take between 6-8 hours and need to be peeled off of the saran wrap and flipped over at least 4 hours into the drying process.

after they are done, they get cut into serving size slices and stored in a container of some sort. putting them in the fridge will make them last longer but ours are out on the counter since i know they will get consumed in the next few days… we just can’t get enough!

stacks of serving size fruit leathers slices. dare you not to eat 20 at once!

.:.