News Taffy

I hope everyone had a great spring break! We really enjoyed it. The first half was crazy busy, so we stayed in the second half of the week and were making no public appearances. (If you have or have had a toddler that's beyond exhausted, then you know what I'm talking about.) So, in the last couple of days, I got to cook a lot of the things I've been wanting to for awhile. One of those things was fruit leather! I usually wait until fruit is more in season to buy, but I have had about as much as the winter sweets as I can for the season and I noticed Bill's was having a sale on their strawberries. Thus, fruit leather, but you and your kids may know it better as Fruit by the Foot. Before you ask, "You MADE Fruit by the Foot?" read more on how easy this is.

Ingredients:
*3 cups of whole strawberries
*1 tablespoon of honey
(Yes, that's it!)

You preheat your oven to 250 degrees - bake slowly so it's more of a dehydrating than a baking process. You wash and cut the stems off of 3 cups of strawberries. (This ends up being about one and a half of the little plastic containers.) You puree them in a blender or processor with 1 tablespoon of honey until they're more like a strawberry smoothie. (Truth be told, I totally put way more honey in mine because they were sour berries since they're out of season. Just taste and see how sweet it as first.) Then pour the mix onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper to cook. Most recipes say 3-4 hours, but my oven is old and so it was closer to 5. You just want the mix to stick to the paper when you hold it up, but not to be sticky to your touch.

When it comes out of the oven, it will be very hard, so let it sit for several hours and it'll soften up. Sometimes, overnight is perfect, but mine had to sit out about 12 hours this time. Once it's softer, you can cut the parchment paper and leather into strips and then roll it up.

I keep mine in a Ziploc bag, and if they last, they'll keep for 2 weeks or a little more, but they never last that long. :) They're perfect for kids' lunchboxes or after school snack. I even find myself giving half of one to London before dinner to tie her over while it finishes. It really is a yummy snack, and they like it because it's good and fun. Plus, you can rest assured that you know exactly what went into it and both ingredients are natural with no sugar or syrups! If you want more instruction, you can google fruit leather recipes and find all kinds of posts and videos to help out!

Until next time,
Heather