Cherry Fruit Leather Recipe [Cherry and Tart Cherry]
Fruit leather is a delicious snack you can’t get enough of, especially if it’s sour and savory like tart cherry leather! Everyone’s going to love it!
Fruit leathers are known as Lavashak in Iran, and after cooking puree, they put it on the roof to dry under the sun. In Iran, cherry is known as “Albaloo”, and its fruit leather is called “Lavashak Albaloo”.
The making of sour cherry fruit roll-up is very simple. You just have to bake the fruits, then add some salt. Some people prefer sweet and sour fruit leather, so they add sugar to the mixture.
I prefer sour and savory fruit leathers, so I serve them with some pomegranate paste or dried cherry and apricot. This sauce makes the sourness of your fruit roll a hundred folds more delicious!
I have other suggestions for making this snack even more pleasant which I will explain further in this post.
Cherry or Sour Cherry? Your choice!
Cherry is sweet and the fruit leather made with it is sweet and sour. If you like sour fruit leather, use sour cherries. Sour cherries are smaller in size as well and sour in taste.
The final taste relies on the fruits you use, but whichever you choose, the recipe stays the same. Adding salt or sugar is optional.
Stir continuously to avoid burning at the bottom of the pot.
In apple fruit leather, we needed to add water while baking the apples since the texture was more rigid. In cherry fruit leather recipe, there is no need for that because cherries are pretty hydrated themselves.
If you want more of a sweet and sour fruit roll, add some apricot or peach.
Pour the fruit roll puree onto a tray with a thickness of 1 cm. If it’s too thick, it dries slowly and might mold.
How To Make Cherry Fruit Leather (Persian Cherry Lavashak)
Ingredients
- 1 kg Cherries
- ½ tbsp Salt
Instructions
- Pit the cherries.
- Put the cherries in a saucepan and cook them.
- Add in some salt or sugar.
- Let the cooked cherries cool.
- Blend them in a blender so the skin is shredded to tiny pieces.
- If the cherries are still watery, cook them again until the extra water fully vaporizes.
- Spread the puree on a tray and let it dry under the sun or in an oven.
Notes
You can cook the cherries without pitting them, and strain them later. Throw away the skin and pits. However, the sourness of cherries is in their skin, so I prefer making Lavashak with their skin included.
Cherry is one of the best fruits for making sour fruit leather.
How does the fruit roll dry?
After baking the puree, spread it on a tray. Oil the tray or cover the bottom of it with plastic so your fruit leather peels off easier later.
Leave the tray in front of a fan for 2-3 days, or under sunlight for 1-2 days. You can also put the tray in the oven with the lowest heat (110 C) for 1.5-2 hours. In this method, spread the puree on a parchment paper-covered oven tray. Leave the oven door ajar.
What does cherry fruit leather taste like?
Adding sugar or salt is optional and depends on your taste. If you use sour cherries and add some salt, you’ll have a sour and savory fruit leather (Which I love!)
If you use cherries, add some sugar (2-3 tablespoons) for a sweet and sour result.
Some people add both (some sugar and some salt) to get a dual taste.
I don’t have the time to pit the cherries, how do I make this fruit leather?
If you lack either the time or the patience for pitting the cherries, follow these steps:
- Wash the cherries and pour them into a pot on heat.
- After they’re thoroughly cooked and soft, put a colander on another pot. Pour the puree into the colander.
- Using the back of a plastic spatula, a spoon, or your hand, crush them until the flesh of the cherries is separated from the pits and goes through the colander. If needed, add some boiled water in small portions so that the flesh comes off the pits easier.
- If the final puree is too watery, let it simmer a little more to thicken.
- Spread the puree on a tray and leave it to dry.
The colander pores should not be too small since the puree needs to go through them.
Don’t add too much water because it delays the process and you should wait longer for further evaporation.
How to make cherry fruit leather in a dehydrator
To do this, you will need a dehydrator, and a metal tray smaller than the tray of your dehydrator. This tray will be put inside the dehydrator.
After preparing the puree, spread it on the tray. Oil the bottom of the tray. Put the metal tray on top of the dehydrator’s tray and let it dry.
You can also use a thin aluminum foil or a piece of parchment paper, put them on the dehydrator’s tray, and spread the puree on them.
There are also fruit roll sheets that are specialized for fruit leathers and you can directly spread the puree on them.
Turn the dehydrator on. After 5-6 hours, your fruit leather is ready. The exact time needed depends on the fruit roll’s thickness and the amount of water in it.
Apple-Cherry fruit leather
You can mix some sour cherries and apples in order to make apple-cherry fruit leather. Apple fruit leather is yellow, and when you add sour cherries to it, it reddens and becomes an alluring color.
Making this fruit leather is all the same. You can peel the apples, or cook them without peeling them and then force them through a colander. The colander pores shouldn’t be too small, because they should let the puree through them.
Conclusion
Cherries and tart cherries are some of the best ingredients for making fruit leather. Cherry fruit leather tastes sweet and sour whereas sour cherry fruit leather is sour and savory, just like pomegranate fruit rolls.
Serving them with some pomegranate paste, dried cherries, and apricot or some prune adds to the experience! You can add plum paste, or cook the sour cherry puree with some barberry. The result is absolutely mouthwatering.
Plum leather is another delicious sour fruit leather that I suggest you see its recipe.
If you’ve ever tried sour and savory fruit leather with pomegranate paste, let me know how you felt about it. Did you enjoy it?
