Homemade Triple Berry Fruit Strips

Yesterday my sister-in-law Rochel came over for our typical weekly domestic activity. Sometimes it has been precious sewing time, but recently it has been adventures in baking. We made cookies last time and this time we both really wanted to make dried fruit strips aka fruit roll-ups. We found the recipe on a favorite blog and decided to give it a shot.

Here we are adding the blueberry and blackberry puree into the pan of strawberry puree. Isn't that pretty? We used the Magic Bullet to blend our fruit.

Then we squeezed 1/2 a lemon and added the juice to the pan.

Next add the applesauce....and then don't forget 1/2 cup of sugar. Although the sugar is optional and I bet it would be great without it too.

Once all the ingredients are in the pan you have to get it to a boil. Then let it simmer for 30-40 minutes until it reduces down.

We poured the hot mixture onto a pan covered with parchment paper.

Smooth it out as evenly as possible.

Ta-Da!

Isn't that pretty? Well, it looks done, but now you have to bake it for 8-10 hours. Yes, you read that right, I said hours! The start time for this recipe is key. We put it in the oven at 4 pm. This meant that we would be pulling it out of the oven between midnight and 2 am. I did take it out at 1 am. So be careful. You don't want to end up waking up in the middle of the night to get your fruit out of the oven.

My daughter has been gobbling them up all day! (I have too.)

Recipe:

Approximately: 4 cups of fresh fruit (measure first, then puree)

1/2 lemon juiced

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sugar (optional)

Directions: Puree fruit, add all ingredients, simmer 30-40 minutes, pour in pan, bake 8-10 hours at 130 degrees, cool and cut into strips. EAT and enjoy!!!! You could share them too!

For this recipe we used 2 cups strawberries, 1 cup blueberries, and 1 cup blackberries.

Mmmm Cake!

So, no I don't really make cake all that often. This time my husband actually asked me to make a cake. I had made a beautiful dinner and then he says, "I'd really like cake. You haven't made a cake in a while." Like any other wife I whip up a yellow cake and throw on some peanut butter frosting. I used the same frosting from my previous cake post. It is sweet, but not too sweet. I have been trained in Wilton cake making and boy is that icing good, but bad, bad, bad! Since this was not going to be a fancy decorated cake I figured this frosting would be fine. So here's the recipe for the frosting. The cake is just a yellow cake mix.

Frosting:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup milk
powdered sugar
1tsp vanilla

I didn't put a measurement for the sugar because you may need to add more or less as you go. Add one cup at a time until you get a consistency you like. If I had to guess I would say I used between 3-4 cups of sugar. I wanted it to be drippy, but not watery. So this part is completely up to your personal taste.

Peanut Butter Frosting:
After you make the whole batch of frosting pour out a 1/4 of it and add a large spoonful of peanut butter and mix in until smooth. You could just add 3-4 spoonfuls to the whole batch, but I wasn't sure how my hubby would like it.

I would love to see your picctures or hear about it if you make it. It is so yummy! Thanks to my sister-in-law for finding the original icing recipe!

Just wait until you see what I made today! That will be my next post.....homemade triple berry fruit roll ups!

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