Strawberry fields and fruit leather

It's strawberry season so my husband and I decided to go pick strawberries at a small farm in Carnation, WA since a) they're sweeter and more delicious than anything you can buy in the store and b) they're $1/pound. I didn't really think about the fact that I'm 8+ months pregnant and bending down to pick berries can only happen for so long before I get sore, tired, and cranky. We picked the perfect day to go, so being in the sun made bending down to pick berries not seem so bad. We must have been super speedy, or we must not have eaten as many of the berries we picked as the people around us, because we had 14 pounds in about a half hour.

I knew I wanted to freeze most of the berries, but I also wanted to try out some new recipes: strawberry crumb bars and strawberry fruit leather. The crumb bars turned out ok, but I want to try making some changes, so I'll post that recipe later. The fruit leather turned out great! It wasn't difficult to make, but it took a long time. However, the result was a thick, strawberry-y fruit leather that reminded me of the natural kind you can buy for $0.50+ each. I want to try this recipe with other fruit... I'm thinking peach fruit leather sounds good when peaches are in season in our area.

I didn't make any changes to the recipe I found on Epicurious. I was initially concerned about the amount of sugar, thinking it would taste too sweet when it was finished, but it turned out great! I may try making it again with less sugar just to see how it turns out, but I was definitely satisfied with the result this time.

You definitely need some sort of pan liner, such as a Silpat, to prevent the hot strawberry mixture from sticking. Parchment paper is helpful as well to remove the fruit leather from the Silpat.

 

Strawberry Fruit Leather (from www.epicurious.com)

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb strawberries, halved (4 1/2 cups)

3/4 cup sugar

Equipment

17- by 12-inch nonstick bakeware liner such as a Silpat

parchment paper

a large offset spatula

Purée strawberries with sugar in a blender until smooth, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large heavy saucepan.

Bring purée to a boil, then simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally (more frequently toward end), until thick enough to mound slightly and reduced to 1 to 11/4 cups, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 200°F with rack in middle. Line a large baking sheet with nonstick liner.

Pour hot purée onto liner and spread thinly (as evenly as possible) into a 15- by 10-inch rectangle using spatula. Dry purée in oven until it feels drier (it shouldn't stick to your fingers) but is still slightly tacky, 2 to 3 hours.

Cool on liner on a rack until completely dry, at least 3 hours and up to 24. I left it out for 24 hours just to make sure it wasn't too sticky.

Place a sheet of parchment paper over leather, then peel leather off liner, slice using a knife or pizza cutter, and roll up in parchment.