Categories: Spark

Creating Fruit Leather With Frozen Fruit #WelchsFrozenSoFresh #ad

Although this post is sponsored by Welch’s® Frozen Fruits, all opinions are my own.

Fruit is something my family has a love/hate relationship with. We all love fruit and would eat more of it except it tends to go bad on us before we can finish it all. I hate grocery shopping and so we tend to run out of fruit and then it’s a while before I can replace it. I have bought canned fruit before but that doesn’t always cut it for my family. I honestly never thought of buying frozen fruit other than for smoothie making.

Did you know though you can eat frozen fruit straight from the bag? Welch’s Frozen Fruits come in a variety of delicious flavors that make it possible for fruit lovers to enjoy fruit whenever they want to. No more throwing away rotting fruit from the counter or snacking on junk food because you ran out of fruit.

Welch’s 48oz Blueberry Fusion
Welch’s 48oz Tropical Blend
Welch’s 48oz Antioxidant Blend

Why should you buy frozen fruit?

Ripe fresh taste even right out of the freezer

Affordable – especially since you will be wasting fruit less

Convenient – since it’s in the freezer, you can store a few bags so you don’t run out

Versatile – you can eat it from the bag or create a yummy recipe with it. Frozen fruit can be used past the traditional smoothies they are usually used for. You can use frozen fruit for breakfast toppings, muffins, desserts and even on BBQ Kabobs! Visit Welch’s website for the recipes!

Frozen fruit is fun! I love how frozen fruit is not mushy and the perfect consistency to eat anytime.

I decided to think outside the box with Welch’s Frozen Fruits and I came up with making Fruit Leather. I kept coming across recipes online using applesauce so I figured if I blended up frozen fruit it would be about the same consistency. I love that I didn’t need to add any sugar either, the fruits are naturally sweetened.

I headed to my local Jewel store and picked up Welch’s New Antioxidant Fruit Blend. It was a tough choice, but I figured I’d start with this variety and then work my way through the others!

Ingredients:

Welch’s Frozen Fruits – you pick the variety
Parchment paper

Directions:

Blend up about 4 cups (half the bag) of the frozen fruit

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or use a Silpat baking mat)

Pour the blended Welch’s Frozen Fruits onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet and smooth out.

Bake at 200 degrees for 5 hours.

Let cool for 20 minutes.

Cut strips of parchment paper with the leather-like fruit roll on it.

I would recommend a big blender, I couldn’t find my big part so had to do multiple blends with my small cup.

Here it is all spread out:

This is after I transferred it to wax paper, I think Parchment Paper would have kept it together better.

NOTE:

I didn’t have parchment paper on hand so I poured my fruit onto a Silpat baking mat. Then I peeled off and transferred to wax paper. (You can’t use Wax paper in the oven so I had extra work basically.) I cut the strips of wax paper then taped to seal. It did the job, but next time I will use parchment paper.

Overall, my Fruit Leather was a hit with my family and they are already asking me to make more. It was super easy to make and honestly a fun activity to do with my kids. My kids are actually the ones who asked if we could make this as we haven’t been able to find Fruit Leather at our local store and they knew it was made with fruit. I also learned a few things such as using parchment paper, not adding water and be patient!