Fruit Leather

I had my first recipe request from my friend Dierdre.  Last year I made a lot of fruit leather, yet somehow I kind of forgot about it until Dierdre mentioned it.  Our last delivery from the CSA was filled with plums (too many plums for Calvin and I to eat) and so plum fruit leather is about to happen.  I think I am also going to throw in some blueberries before they go bad.  I have also made fruit leather with apples and cinnamon, pears and cilantro, strawberry and mint and some others that I can't remember at the moment. But today, its all about plums.  

Plum and Blueberry Fruit Leather
plums (I had enough to fill a baking sheet)
blueberries
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/4 cup of sugar (I have also used agave or honey in the past or nothing at all if the fruit is extra sweet)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice the plums in half, remove their pits and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 15 minutes.

Put the plums, blueberries and lemon juice into a food processor (you can use a blender if you don't have one) until a smooth puree forms.  Add sugar and puree again.  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour the mixture on in an even layer. 

Make sure you use an oversized piece of parchment paper so that your fruit leather doesn't stick to the side of your baking sheet.

Let the fruit dry out in the oven for as long as it takes to form fruit leather.  If your oven has a low setting, you can put it on 140 degrees.  My oven's lowest setting is 170, so I periodically turn the oven on and off while the fruit leather dries out.  This process can take a long time, so feel free to just leave it in a cool oven and let it hang out all day and over night if it needs to dry out more.  The batch I made today was pretty thick, so I let it dry out for 2 days.

Once the fruit leather is done (it should feel tacky but not sticky) you can start to cut it.  I roll it up in the parchment paper and cut it into 1 inch strips using a scissor or a pizza cutter.  Store in a ziploc bag!