Most fruit leathers sold in stores contain added sugar or fruit juice. These homemade blueberry fruit leather strips are sweetened with low carb stevia.
It’s a rainy day in here in Connecticut. It’s one of those days where you just want to hang out in the house and find something relaxing to do. It was a perfect day to pull out the big Excalibur Dehydrator that I have and make some blueberry fruit leather.
I originally bought the dehydrator to make venison jerky out of all the deer meat my husband gets during hunting season. However, it’s also a great machine for drying fruits and vegetables. I probably don’t use it as much as I should.
We have a friend in a neighboring town that has about 50 blueberry bushes in his yard of all different varieties. For some reason, this summer wasn’t that great for blueberries, but last year there was an bumper crop of berries. Blueberries can be frozen for up to two years, so I still have some frozen bags from the summer of 2009 in my freezer.
I used about 4 cups to make a puree for blueberry fruit leather. Blueberries are fairly sweet on their own, so it’s not essential to add a sweetener when making a fruit leather out of them.
However, I like to sweeten them a little with stevia. I find that a liquid version like the NOW brand of Stevia Glycerite works well in this recipe. I suppose you could add Splenda or sugar alcohols as well, but I wanted to keep it simple and natural.
You can buy all natural fruit leathers in the grocery store or natural food store, but they are typically sweetened with apple juice or some other fruit sugar. The carbs are a bit high for me so I prefer using a zero carb sweetener like stevia in my homemade fruit leather.
Bear in mind that each blueberry fruit leather contains about 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries. Because of the fructose, each strip has about 5 grams of natural fruit sugar.
These are a great snack for the kids and they are nice way to carry fruit without worrying about smashing or spoiling. Making them was also a good way for me to pass the time on a rainy day.
If you don’t have a food dehydrator, you may be able to bake these in a low temperature oven. However, I’ve never tried it that way and recommend using a dehydrator because that’s what it’s made for.
For those that don’t like blueberries, you can simply change them out with another low carb berry. Strawberry would make a yummy low carb fruit leather!
Stevia Sweetened Blueberry Fruit Leather Recipe
Stevia Sweetened Blueberry Fruit Leather
Ingredients
- 4 cups blueberries , fresh or frozen
- 1/2 teaspoon stevia glycerite
Instructions
-
Place blueberries and stevia in food processor. Puree until it is smooth. Pour 1 1/2 to 2 cups of puree on to center of Teflex or plastic wrap covered food dehydrator trays. Spread puree out on tray. Since edges can dry faster, the puree should be spread about 1/8-inch thick at center and 1/4-inch thick at edges.
-
Placed prepared trays into food dehydrator with the temperature set at 135 degrees F. Average drying time is 4 to 6 hours. When leather is dried, it will be a little shiny and non-sticky to the touch. Allow leather to cool and peel it from the tray. Cut into strips. Wrap strips in waxed paper and store in covered container.
Recipe Notes
Makes about 12 servings
Carbs per serving: about 6.7 g
Related Posts
Marlene says
Thanks for the recipe, but what is agood dehydrater? Can I use something else?
Lisa says
I use an large Excaliber dehydrater but it does cost a bit more than the smaller ones.