MYO Fruit Roll-Ups Using Applesauce | ~ Texas Homesteader ~

by Texas Homesteader ~

Making fruit rollups using plain applesauce makes a healthy snack option for kids and adults alike. I’ll share step-by-step instructions, let me show you how easy it is to make fun fruit roll-ups!

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Preparing Apples For Homemade Applesauce

Of course you can use purchased applesauce but it’s super easy to make your own using fresh apples. I used my *apple slicer/corer to peel, slice & core each apples in seconds.

When they were peeled, cored & sliced I chunked ’em all into a slow cooker overnight. These apples were so sweet there was no additional sugar necessary.

The apples cooked down into super-soft apple mush with lots of apple cider juice at the bottom.

I wanted to enjoy the resulting Apple Cider during the cold winter months so I drained & canned it to preserve it for later.

Then I used my blender to puree the soft apples into smooth applesauce.

Apple Rollup Flavor Option

I made the apple rollup fruit leather using nothing but homemade unsweetened applesauce. No preservatives, no colorants or additions. Just pure apple deliciousness.

But then for a different flavor option I made another batch where I stirred in about a tablespoon of cinnamon & made apple/cinnamon roll-ups.

It couldn’t have been easier! Let’s see how easy it is to dehydrate my homemade applesauce into fun fruit roll ups!

Drying Applesauce Into Apple Leather Fruit Roll Ups

I’ll share below the step-by-step instructions for making applesauce into fruit roll ups.

For my 9-Tray Excalibur:

Add 2 cups unsweetened applesauce to each parchment paper-lined tray
Spread applesauce thinly, leaving it slightly thicker on edges
Turn dehydrator to 125ºF. Check and rotate trays after about 2 hrs. Leather is done when no tackiness remains. (about 6-8 hours)
Allow trays to remain in dehydrator for a few more hours after it’s been turned off to assure all moisture is removed.
Cut leather into strips & roll strips while still attached to parchment to keep the leather from sticking to itself.
Store in an airtight container.

More detail about those steps are below:

Dehydrating The Applesauce Into A Fruit Leather

To turn that applesauce into fruit rollups I used a 9-tray *Excalibur Dehydrator and lined the trays with parchment paper.

Of course I could have just used my *non-stick dehydrator sheets that I bought to go with my dehydrator. But once the leather is dehydrated I can cut the strips right through the parchment & roll them up without any other wrapping needed for it.

The only drawback in using parchment with these leathers was that the drying fruit leather pulled the parchment paper as it dried, puckering the paper around the edges. But it didn’t affect the leather itself nor the end result when I cut & rolled the leather into fruit roll ups.

So I took about 2 cups of my homemade applesauce & placed it on a parchment paper lined dehydrator tray. I used a dough scraper like *this one to smooth the applesauce into a thin layer.

Remember to leave the apple puree just a smidge thicker on the edges since that’s where it will dry first.

You don’t want the edges to dry so much that it’s hard & crunchy.

Then I repeated until all the trays were loaded with my homemade applesauce and slid the parchment-lined trays into the dehydrator.

The temperature was set to 125°F and then I just walked away & went on with my life for awhile.

Some recipes call for a hotter temp but I stuck with 125 and it worked great for me.

After a couple of hours I checked on the drying progress & rotated the trays to make sure everything dried evenly.

How Long To Dry Fruit Leather

About 7 hours is what it took for my applesauce to dry into leather to my satisfaction.

But remember your actual drying time will vary. My time was based on my dehydrator, the temp I set it on, the humidity in our air, how thinly I spread the applesauce, etc.

Whatever your conditions are – you want to dry it until it’s no longer tacky. And if applesauce sticks to a finger when you test it for dryness or it feels overly sticky, it’s not dry – give it a little more time.

After my leather was dry I turned off the dehydrator but left the trays loaded with leather inside overnight to allow it to further air dry. I wanted to make sure it was totally dry before rolling everything up.

Cutting The Apple Leather Into Roll-Ups

The next morning I cut the fruit leather into strips and gave some to RancherMan to try. He said it was delicious.

Then I just rolled the rest up – the parchment paper kept it from sticking to itself. And when we ate them, the leathers pulled easily from the strips of parchment paper too.

I followed the same procedure to make cinnamon/apple flavored roll ups by adding a little cinnamon to the applesauce. After it was dry I had RancherMan sample it and he liked the more flavorful cinnamon/apple roll ups even more.

So we have both types currently stored in a wide-mouth jar. I wonder how long these babies will last?

We’ve hit ’em pretty hard already but the ones we haven’t eaten yet we’ve had for a month or so & they still taste delicious!

Enjoy your homemade fruit rollups!

~TxH~

Links in this post:

5 Delicious Ways To Preserve Fresh Apples:

Delicious Apple Recipes

Other Easy Desserts

Cakes, Pies, Cobblers

Muffins, Breads

Cookies

Puddings

Ice Cream & Other Desserts

Dessert Toppings

See All Recipe Posts

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3 thoughts on “Fruit Leather Roll-ups Are Healthy & Fun To Make Preserving Apples Delicious!”

Carrie @ Carrie's Home Cooking at

What a great snack! We just started the Whisk It Wednesday link party and I thought you might be interested in sharing there too! Thanks, Carrie

Reply ↓
Mrs Shoes at

I don’t think I’ve given fruit leather a second thought since our children stopped asking for it years ago. All I did with our apple haul this year was cut them into quarters, core, & freeze them for baking, but I also didn’t have 10 bushels!
I thought I had dibs on all the fruit of an old apple growing in the city, but then my nephew broke up with that girl and they’ve all fallen on the ground with wasps by now; so sad for such waste (even downed apples would have made our chickens, rabbits, pigs, and cattle happy). What’s that? No, not the horses – they get better than downed apples. 🙂

Reply ↓
1. Nancy at
  
  Hey Tammy,
  When I made fruit leather for my kids (many years ago) I also would mix in berry juices. I have a great Champion juicer and it takes the seeds (blackberry and raspberry) right out. Mix that juice in with the applesauce and you have apple berry fruit leather. I also did strawberry but didn’t juice them. I may have to try again making fruit leather, for Kaleigh.
  
  Reply ↓

~Texas Homesteader~

Working To Provide For Ourselves On Our Texas Homestead

Fruit Leather Roll-ups Are Healthy & Fun To Make Preserving Apples Delicious!