Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 353 kcal | 100 kcal |
| Protein | 3.3 g | 0.9 g |
| Fat | 7.1 g | 2 g |
| saturated | 5.5 g | 1.6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 63.9 g | 18.1 g |
| sugars | 52.8 g | 15 g |
| Fibre | 11.6 g | 3.3 g |
| Sodium | 135 mg | 38 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.7 kg chopped cooked carrots (be sure to cook them until they're
- very soft)
- 12 cups chopped raw apples (peeling is optional)
- 3 cups apple juice or water
- 3/4 cup dehydrated shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)
- 3/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tablespoons cornflour
- 3/8 cup dehydrated grapes, finely chopped
Instructions
- Cook the carrots until they are genuinely soft — collapsing under a fork, not just tender. A blender will not break raw carrot down far enough, and fibrous flecks in a leather dry into hard splinters.
- Blend the carrots, apple, juice, coconut, honey, lemon juice, pumpkin pie spice and cornflour to the texture of apple sauce, and leave the dried grapes out. Blended in, they disappear; scattered on later, they stay as pieces.
- Simmer the puree in a small pan for two minutes after it comes to the boil, stirring constantly. This cooks out the raw starch, and raw cornflour tastes chalky and never sets properly.
- Let it cool to lukewarm, then pour about a cup per leather onto a drying sheet and rock the tray gently until the surface flattens. An uneven pour is the main cause of a leather that is brittle at one end and wet at the other.
- Scatter the chopped dried grapes over each leather while the surface is still wet. They need to sink slightly to stay put; sprinkled on a set surface they fall off in the bag.
- Dehydrate at 52 °C for 11 hours, and judge progress by whether a corner lifts cleanly rather than by the clock. If it stretches as you pull, it is not ready.
- Peel the leathers off and lay them on the mesh for a further 3 hours at the same setting. The underside has spent the whole first run sealed against a solid sheet and is always the damper face.
- Roll each cooled leather in baking paper and store the rolls in a sealed jar for a month, or in the freezer for six. The honey keeps these slightly tacky, so store them rolled rather than stacked, and check for any bloom before eating an old one.
