Making Fruit Rolls--Another Way to Preserve the Harvest

As a little girl and pre-teen, I spent a week or two with my Mexican grandmother every summer.  She had a tiny garden at the back of her single-wide mobile home in a trailer park in San Jose, California, where she grew strawberries for the fruit rolls she made for me and my cousins.

When I went off to college, I loved it so much that I didn't go home for the summer.  And one of the things that I loved about the area, and that had nothing to do with school, was the fact that there were so many orchards, and so many U-pick places.  I could can fruit and make jam and fruit rolls.  Heaven.

So I called Grandma and asked how to make her fruit rolls.  Plastic wrap, blender, fruit, and corn syrup.  A dehydrator was nice, but not essential.  A warm oven with the door propped open would work.  Some ovens actually have a dehydrating option.

Grandma's more detailed instructions were to prepare the dehydrator trays or cookie sheets first by putting plastic wrap on and securing the edges well; otherwise, the edges of the plastic wrap tend to curl over the pureed fruit.  Fill the blender with fruit, puree until smooth, and add corn syrup to taste, about 1/3 cup per quart of pureed fruit.  Not only does corn syrup add the sometimes-necessary sweetness, but it also makes the fruit rolls more flexible and easier to roll up.  (Sugar is never used because it will make the fruit rolls grainy.)   A tablespoon of lemon juice may be added to preserve the bright color of the fruit but is not essential. Pour fruit puree onto prepared dehydrator trays or cookie sheets and use a spatula to spread evenly, about 1/8-1/4" thick.  Thinner, and it will be crunchy; thicker, and it won't dry well.  Dehydrate in the dehydrator or oven.  Or on the dashboard of a car with the windows open, parked in the sun on a sunny day.  Of course, the time required will vary based on the thickness of the fruit puree, humidity, and temperature.

When the fruit roll is done, it will be slightly tacky, not wet.  When you touch it to check for doneness, no fruit should stick to your fingers.  And you should be able to peel it off cleanly and transfer it to another sheet of plastic for rolling up and storing.  If it is too wet, and you store it that way, you're going to have a serious laxative at best when you go to eat it.  If it is too dry, the fruit will crack or shatter and won't roll up, but it will be perfectly safe to eat.

And you don't have to limit yourself to fresh fruit.  Still got an excess of canned peaches or apricots from that abundant harvest two years ago?  Or maybe some canned applesauce far past its best-by date?  What about frozen fruits?  It all works!  Make fruit rolls!  Healthy-ish, calorie-dense, and compact and light-weight.  And kid-friendly!

There are dozens and maybe even hundreds of hits if you search online for "How To Make Fruit Rolls."  I was really surprised to find that a lot of them tell you to use plastic to line cookie sheets and set the oven temperature to 170 degrees.  That just seems to be a bit too warm for plastic touching food for my comfort.  The temperature for fruit rolls doesn't need to be any higher than 135 for drying them, and indeed, 100-110 degrees is more ideal, if slower.

And fruit rolls don't need to be stored in the refrigerator, either!  Good heavens!  It's just fruit, with maybe a little sweetener and maybe a little lemon juice.  People have been drying and preserving fruit for thousands of years to carry their families through to the next harvest.  Without refrigeration!  If the fruit rolls are dried completely, they don't need refrigeration and will last at least a year.  Theoretically.  If the children don't know where they are.

Links to related posts:
Quick and Dirty Dehydrating  
Dehydrated Pineapple 
Dehydrated Tomatoes 
Instant Rice 

Hamburger Rocks  

 30 march 2019