Home Made Fruit Leather (which may or may not be organic.)

So there's this thing going on.
I don't know if you've heard about it...
It's kind of a fad, but I think it might be here to stay....
It's a little thing called ORGANIC. 
Now don't you be fooled - it takes a lot to become Certified Organic (I capitalized the words so you know they're important and stuff). And by a lot, I mean it takes 3 FREAKING YEARS of being completely and totally, 100% pesticide free... among other things, of course. But this is what impresses me most.
I don't know how your perception of time is working for you, but for me, 3 years is pretty much forever (mostly because I'm both impulsive and impatient). So when I hear that somewhere has been THAT awesome for THAT long, you DESERVE to charge me almost double what other producer charge for the same product.
HAHAHA, KIDDING, you don't. Not at all.
But admittedly, there's something slightly magical about organic fruits. Maybe because I don't feel like I have to clean them so much? Or maybe because I'm not worried about ingesting poison. Either way.
So back to my point: ..... Um fruit leather, I think it was?
I don't know. Let's go with that.

OH! I remember! Organic.
Long story short, since I've been in school I've had weekends off, meaning that I've been able to get to the farmers market a lot more often, which is awesome, because I LOVE farmer's markets.
Last weekend I went there, and discovered that it's rhubarb season.
Now a little known fact about me is that I have a weakness for rhubarb.
It's tart, it's sweet, and if you eat the wrong part of the plant you can die.
No joke.
So there's something that I find very appealing about it.
Therefore I bought like 5 pounds. DON'T JUDGE ME.
And I was like "OH MAN, Ima make PIES and BREADS and CANDY and IMA EAT IT ALL, and it will all be lovely and it will all be good and I will be happy."
What I forgot to take in to consideration is how very acidic it is, and how, after eating approximately 1 pound of it, you want to die.
Ha, rookie mistake.
Also, I'm poor.
So like, between the two of those things, I was sitting alone in my living room on Saturday night and I was like OH MAN, what do I do with all of this.
It's beautiful, it's 100% organic or whatever, and it's making me want to vomit... but I still love it.
So I looked in my fridge and realized that I had also bought organic strawberries and organic honey (the honey is from a few weeks ago and ohmygoodness is it amazing.) so I decided to try my hand at making fruit leather! (Don't ask how I came to that conclusion. Just don't.)

This evening I just so happened to have a few hours to spare, because my homework load was pretty light.
So here's how we're going to do this!

You'll need:

• 1lb of your favorite fruit, or a mixture of fruit!
• 1/4 cup of water
• 2 tbs to 2c. of white sugar, honey, stevia, agave sugar, etc etc. SWEETENER. gosh. 
• Heavy sauce pan
• whisk, rubber spatula and/or wooden spoon.
• a blender or food processor
• Shallow baking sheet/pan
• plastic wrap
• Oven or whatever

1) It's time to prep your fruit! Thoroughly wash and dry your fruit, because dirt and pesticides and wax are all gross. If you're working with pitted fruits take out the pits, core apple and pears and stuff, and take tops off of strawberries. Use common sense here, people. Only put the good parts of the fruit here.

2) put your water in to the sauce pan and crank up the heat, then throw your fruit in. You want to get your water up to a simmer (small bubbles coming up)  then turn it down to medium, to keep it simmering but not get too hot. All fruits have natural sugars in them, and if the heat is up too high the sugars are going to burn. That's undesirable.
   2.1) This is a good time to turn on your oven. You want it as low as it can go, usually 140 - 170. I have mine on 170 because A) I plan on leaving it in overnight and B) it doesn't go any lower. Also, it makes it cook faster. 

3) Allow your fruit to simmer along for 5-10 minutes, depending on the type of fruit you're using. If you're going with raspberries, it's not going to take as long to break down as an apple or pear would. Just simmer it until the fruit is tender and it looks like it's going to blend easily. NOTE: As someone who enjoys sweetness, I like to add a little but more water than necessary and let it reduce down. That brings out the natural sugar and helps to caramelize it, making it even more delicious and sticky. 

4) BLEND IT!!!!!!!!! Make it as smooth as possible, and thin enough to pour but not watery. Find a good balance. Like ink, maybe? You don't want it too much like a paste, because it won't dry out properly. 

5) Line your baking sheet with plastic wrap. Don't worry, the oven isn't going to get hot enough to melt the plastic. It's all good!

Pour the fruit puree on to the pan. You don't want it any thicker than a quarter inch, because it needs to dry quickly. 

6) Place your tray on the middle rack and leave your oven on low for 4-8 hours, depending on the density of your puree. You'll know when it's done by touching the middle of the pan and it comes out dry and firm.

Because I started mine later in the afternoon, I've decided to keep it in with the oven on for about 4 or 5 hours, then turn it off before I go to bed (now I'm all paranoid because this morning my Chef told me a story about how his restaurant BLEW UP from a cigarette butt and paint fumes.) and leave it in the CLOSED oven overnight so that when I wake up in the morning I have some tasty fruit leather to look forward to!

Good luck!! Let me know how it turns out :) 

Enjoy!