Make your own apple leather whenever you have some extra apples. Cut it into strips and roll them up. This is a wonderful healthy snack for anyone. It fits easily into a lunch box, keeps for a long time, and is fun to make. The time it takes is well worth it for the pleasure of having a treat to eat. It is fat free, has no cholesterol, and lots of flavor.
Instructions
1. Peel and core the apples. Cut them into quarters and then into smaller 1/4 inch slices. Place the apples, 1 cup of granulated sugar and 2/3 cup of water in the saucepan. Heat the applesauce so that it is simmering, but stir often so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. The sugar will melt into a syrup as it cooks and the apples will lose their texture, become transluscent, and finally become mushy. Keep stirring. Use the potato masher to equalize the consistency of the applesauce. Let the applesauce simmer and thicken for around a half hour.
2. Spread the cooked applesauce on a cookie sheet so that the entire sheet is covered with a thin coating of the applesauce. You may need to use more than one cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheets into the oven at 200 degrees. Check the apple leather every hour for 3 to 5 hours until it is soft but free of moisture. On very humid days you will need to cook the apple leather longer than on dry days.
3. Pull the leather off of the cookie sheet. Cut it into 1 inch wide strips using the kitchen shears. Drape the strips over clean plastic hangers with none of the strips touching any of the others and leave the apple leather to dry for about 24 hours.
4. Remove the strips of apple leather from the hangers. Roll each strip tightly. Store in an airtight jar or container.
Tags: apple leather, cookie sheet, apple leather