Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 285 kcal | 81 kcal |
| Protein | 3 g | 0.8 g |
| Fat | 1.3 g | 0.4 g |
| saturated | 0.1 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 63.3 g | 18 g |
| sugars | 56.8 g | 16.1 g |
| Fibre | 9.4 g | 2.7 g |
| Sodium | 10 mg | 3 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
- 3.2 kg washed, cored and roughly chopped strawberries
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
- 9 cups unsweetened applesauce
- Non-stick cooking spray
Instructions
- Hull the strawberries and cut away any white shoulders. The white part is underripe and stays sour however much honey goes into the jug with it.
- Puree the strawberries with the honey and pineapple juice, then add the applesauce and run it again. The applesauce is the thickener here, and blending it from the start whips a foam that dries full of pinholes.
- Let the puree stand a few minutes and knock the air out with one firm tap of the bowl on the bench. Every bubble left in becomes a hole in a sheet that has to hold together when you roll it.
- Spray the leather sheet lightly rather than generously. Pineapple is acidic and releases more easily than most fruit, and excess oil leaves the finished leather feeling greasy.
- Pour the mixture into the centre and push it outwards in a spiral to an even depth. Poured straight at the edges it will always end up deepest wherever the jug stopped moving.
- Dehydrate at 60 °C for up to 8 hours, and start checking before you reach the end of it. Both the juice and the applesauce carry sugar, and sugar takes a sheet from pliable to hard in a hurry.
- Done is a surface that no longer takes a print, with no soft pocket anywhere across it. Feel for those with the flat of your hand rather than one fingertip, which is how they get missed.
- Cool it briefly, then roll it into cylinders while it is still warm and supple, and keep the rolls airtight somewhere cool for a month. A roll that slumps into a sticky mass needed longer on the tray.
