I was in a mood yesterday. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. I was in a "I want to play in the kitchen all day" type of mood. So that is exactly what I did! It started when I got home from my 2 hour cardio gym sesh. My case of mangoes from Saturday's basket were ripening much quicker than we were eating them, so I started racking my brain. I could always peel, slice, and freeze them for smoothies later but where is the fun in that? I wanted something, and I wanted it now. I happened to look at the weather- 106 degrees all week. Do you know what that means? That means it is perfect weather for naturally drying fruit leather outdoors. SCORE! MANGO FRUIT LEATHER IT IS! I much prefer fruit leather to any kind of processed sugary fruit snack, in fact, I kind of boycotted fruit snacks and refuse to buy them for my children. I know, I'm a mean mean mother, but it's for the best interest of my children. When they are in the house, if my children had a say so, it would be the only snack they consume all day everyday, and it's a melt down if I refuse their demands...so it's better if I avoid that all together. But homemade natural fruit leather, sweetend with just a touch of raw local honey...there is no harm in that!
Ingredients:
4 cups of mangoes
1/4 cup of water
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
Directions:
-Peel, slice, and core mangoes until you have 4 cups of diced fruit (I used about 7 mangoes to acheive this).
-Put fruit and water in saucepan over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until fruit begins to soften and you can mash it with a fork.
-Add lemon juice and honey. Taste and adjust proportions as needed, the amount of sweetness needed often depends on the ripeness of your fruit. Allow to cook together for another couple minutes until flavors are well blended and mangoes are soft and mashed.
-Stir in cinnamon and nutmeg. Then take an emersion blender and puree until smooth. If you don't have an emersion blender you can pour ingredients into a regular blender and blend until smooth.
-Line a baking sheet with microwave safe siran wrap, and evenly spread puree over entire cookie sheet. -Cover with cheesecloth and place outside early in the morning and allow to dry all day. 8-10 hours. I didn't put mine outside until about 10am so come 9 when the sun began to set I brought mine inside, removed the cheese cloth and stuck it in my oven at the lowest temperature setting with the door propped open for another hour. It turned out perfect. For those who don't live in the desert with extremely dry summer temperatures, you can cook it indoors for 8-10 hours (perhaps overnight) in your oven at it's lowest temperature setting. My oven will only go as low as 170 so I prop my door open slightly with metal spatula.
-Once it's done allow it to cool, then cut through the plastic and fruit leather into strips, roll them up, and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them. They will store safely for about a week. However, ours usually don't last more than 24 hours!
You can experiment with different types of fruit, the amount of lemon juice and honey might need to be adjusted slightly- taste test for accuracy. And cinnamon and nutmeg doesn't go well with all fruits so exne those ingredients when necessary.
Remember how I said I was in a mood, well as if delicious mango fruit leather wasn't enough, I experimented with dinner and made a sweet and spicy mango glazed chicken. This very well might be my new chicken recipe- stay tuned for that recipe!
And for all my fun nutritional facts about mangoes check out my previous post on mangoes here!
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