Strawberry Fruit Leathers

Homemade Strawberry Fruit Leather is almost shockingly easy to make—right in your oven or dehydrator! All you need are three ingredients—strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar—to make stretchy, pliable, fun-to-eat fruit roll-ups that taste bright, fruity, and delicious. 

Strawberries are one of our very favorite fruits for dehydrating—they retain so much of their signature berry flavor even when dried. In the past, we’ve shared how to make dehydrated strawberries, and now it’s time to share another way we love to prep strawberries—by transforming them into homemade fruit roll-ups. 

Fruit roll-ups are such a nostalgic snack… Who doesn’t remember the feeling of tearing that sweet and sticky fruit off of its paper and devouring it?! We’re here to tell you that it’s even more satisfying when you make them yourself—and this way, you know exactly what goes into them. Kids love to get in on the action, too. This homemade fruit roll-up recipe is easy enough to be a family project—and, of course, they love the end result!

These homemade fruit leathers are perfect for a quick and easy treat at home, but they’re also great to bring along as a wholesome hiking snack. They’re super portable and lightweight, plus they make an excellent sweet treat that helps power everyone through that last mile. 

The best part is, you don’t need any special equipment to make strawberry fruit leather. Sure, you can absolutely make your homemade fruit roll-ups in a dehydrator, but you can also make them right in your oven. We’ll show you how to make it both ways!

Ingredients

• Strawberries: You can use fresh or frozen strawberries for these homemade fruit roll-ups. When choosing fresh strawberries, look for bright red berries with fresh caps. To clean them, rinse and gently blot them dry. If you use frozen berries, be sure to thaw them first. 
• Lemon juice: You’ll need one tablespoon worth of fresh lemon juice, so one lemon should be plenty. Lemon juice helps to brighten the flavor of your fruit roll-ups and adds a little extra pectin to help create that classic fruit leather texture. 
• Sugar: Granulated white sugar balances out any tartness. Some strawberries are sweeter than others, so we usually start with a small amount of sugar at first and add more if needed.

Equipment

• You can make fruit roll-ups in a dehydrator (we love and recommend the Cosori dehydrator). But if you don’t have a dehydrator, it’s okay—you can make strawberry fruit leather in the oven, too.

How to Make Strawberry Fruit Leather — Step by Step

Start by prepping the strawberries. If you’re using fresh berries, remove the tops and cut them in half, or if they’re larger, cut into quarters. If you’re using frozen berries, make sure they are thawed.

Place the berries, lemon juice, and sugar in a pot over medium heat. Simmer until they’re soft and have released their juices, about 10 minutes. Then, carefully transfer the berry mixture to a food processor or high-speed blender and puree completely. Taste and mix in more sugar if you’d like it sweeter. 

Set a silicone mat or parchment paper on a baking sheet or prepare your dehydrator tray. Spread the strawberry mix on the baking sheet or tray, making the edges slightly thicker than the center. We find that using an offset spatula makes this task much easier. 

To dry in the oven: Place the baking sheet in the oven at the lowest temperature the oven can go (usually between 170°F and 200°F). Use a wooden spoon to prop the door open so that moisture can escape, but please be careful if you have pets or children that might get curious!

To dry in a dehydrator: Place the tray into the dehydrator and set the temp to 135°F.  

Your strawberry fruit leather is done drying when it is no longer tacky and peels easily off of the drying surface. Transfer the dried fruit leather onto a piece of parchment paper and roll it up. Cut it into snack-size rolls. 

Top Tips for Making Fruit Roll-Ups

• If you have a family full of fruit leather lovers, it’s easy to scale this recipe up for a big batch! It can be doubled or even tripled using multiple baking sheets or by filling all of the trays in your dehydrator. As written, this strawberry fruit leather recipe will fill one 10” x 12” tray (we use these in our Cosori dehydrator), or one half-sheet baking pan.
• Heating the strawberries might feel like an unnecessary extra step, but it’s an important one. The heating process releases extra pectin, which will give your fruit leather a more stretchy, elastic texture. 
• If you’re making homemade fruit roll-ups in the oven, we recommend using a silicone baking mat. It makes peeling up your dried fruit leather an absolute breeze.
• An offset spatula makes spreading your fruit leather puree super easy.
• Make the edges of your fruit leather slightly thicker than the center. Your strawberry fruit roll-ups will dry from the outside in, so building up a little extra on the edges helps it all finish at the same time.
• After you’ve spread out the puree, tidy up the edges by turning the offset spatula on its side and pushing the puree back to create a clean edge (like a squeegee).
• If the edges end up too dry or crispy and crack when you try to peel it off of the tray, try dabbing the dry spots with a damp paper towel. This will help add back just enough moisture to make it pliable again. 

Storage Tips

• Up to 2 weeks: If you only plan to store your fruit leathers for a couple of weeks, they can be kept on the counter in a Ziploc bag or resealable container. But be careful to keep it sealed; excessive exposure to air can dry them out. 
• For a few months: For longer storage, place your fruit roll-ups in a tightly sealed Mason jar and store them in a cool, dark place. They’ll last for months!