Homemade Apple Sauce and Dehydrated Fruit Roll Ups

Fruit roll ups...takes me back to my childhood.  Browsing the produce section and all I could spy was the fruit roll ups and the prepackaged one serving apple pies.  

We have a dehydrator that belonged to my parents when I was a kid.  It was always super fun to make dehydrated fruit growing up that I still continue the tradition today.  These fruit roll ups {or fruit leathers as we call them around here} are absolutely delicious and super simple to make!

In order to make the fruit roll ups, the main base is apple sauce.  You can use the kind you buy at the store but I occasionally make and can my own.

Homemade apple sauce: ratio of about 4 apples cut, peeled, and cored + 1 cup of water.  Heat until a boil.  Then simmer.  Stir and mush as you go.

You can make fruit roll ups just with the apple sauce which is very delicious but my newest favorite is adding in fruit.  I just puree some frozen fruit {strawberries and blueberries this time} and add it to the apple sauce.  This is also a delicious snack by itself!

Spray the fruit roll up mat inserts with cooking spray and spread out the fruit mixture.

Dehydrators take hours and hours and hours to dehydrate.  So I usually let them cook over night plugged into an automatic timer.

Roll em' up and eat em' up!

Dehydrators take up a lot of space and are an investment.  Though I only use it a couple of times a year {when I have an overabundance of apples!} to me it is worth storing and keeping.  Definitely something worth looking for at a yard sale or your parent's garage!

I looked on Amazon and found a dehydrator all in one kit that I think would be a good place to start.  I have also bought extra fruit roll sheets so that I can make a few rolls at a time.

And if this just seems silly and more work than you are interested in, I really love Archer Farms real fruit strips you can find at Target!