Fruit Leather

[Jeanied]

Hi Ollie - another divergent (if curmudgeonly) thinker! The instruction booklet talks about vegetable leathers too but no particular varieties - just 'fresh or canned'. The base of the dehydrator is flat and you just line it with the parchment and pour the pulp onto this like self-levelling floor screed! I couldn't figure out how to cut the parchment into a circle that would fit so I left it in a torn off rectangle - it needed to come up the sides a bit to hold the pulp. Then the dehydrator dries it out slowly. You can do this with baking sheets in the oven if you are up for leaving the oven on low for hours.

[HeyWayne]

Usually I'm not an advocate of chewing leather (Bean has a habit of chewing mummy's rather expensive handbag, or daddy's expensive wallet).

This could be the answer!

*goes off to goggle at google*

[OllieMartin]

Hi Ollie - another divergent (if curmudgeonly) thinker! The instruction booklet talks about vegetable leathers too but no particular varieties - just 'fresh or canned'. The base of the dehydrator is flat and you just line it with the parchment and pour the pulp onto this like self-levelling floor screed! I couldn't figure out how to cut the parchment into a circle that would fit so I left it in a torn off rectangle - it needed to come up the sides a bit to hold the pulp. Then the dehydrator dries it out slowly. You can do this with baking sheets in the oven if you are up for leaving the oven on low for hours.

Might be giving this a try then. How deep do you fill it with the puree? And do you think teflon sheets would do, or greaseproof?

[Jeanied]

How thick are the teflon sheets? I haven't used them. My dehydrator cut out and I think it was because it was too close to the puree as my parchment was a bit wrinkled - so I put an empty rack in over the top. Depth of the puree - 1-2 millimetres roughly. It may be that you could spread the puree on a disc which fits the base exactly but you need a mixture that won't spread. Greaseproof should do I would have thought, given the caveat above.

[OllieMartin]

How thick are the teflon sheets? I haven't used them. My dehydrator cut out and I think it was because it was too close to the puree as my parchment was a bit wrinkled - so I put an empty rack in over the top. Depth of the puree - 1-2 millimetres roughly. It may be that you could spread the puree on a disc which fits the base exactly but you need a mixture that won't spread. Greaseproof should do I would have thought, given the caveat above.

"caveat" is a lovely, useful word.

teflon sheets are about as thick as 2 or 3 greaseproof sheets or a sheet of good quality writing paper.
Theyre designed for baking so that you dont have to scrape your food off a tray, you can just peel the sheet off the bottom and it wipes clean (think you can even put them in a dishwasher). I've not used one before either, but I got a pack in a Chr*stmas stocking a few years ago and never got round to using them.

Will give some of this a go over the weekend.

[HeyWayne]

"caveat" is a lovely, useful word.

teflon sheets are about as thick as 2 or 3 greaseproof sheets or a sheet of good quality writing paper.
Theyre designed for baking so that you dont have to scrape your food off a tray, you can just peel the sheet off the bottom and it wipes clean (think you can even put them in a dishwasher). I've not used one before either, but I got a pack in a Chr*stmas stocking a few years ago and never got round to using them.

Will give some of this a go over the weekend.

Are these the same things that almost everyone on any cookery programme at the moment is using to make twill biscuits?

[OllieMartin]

Are these the same things that almost everyone on any cookery programme at the moment is using to make twill biscuits?

erm, not sure, but im going to go with...yes.

unless they're not the same, it which case...no.

[HeyWayne]

erm, not sure, but im going to go with...yes.

unless they're not the same, it which case...no.

Are you at least sure?

[OllieMartin]

Are you at least sure?

I'm 100% certain (which equates to a 1,000,000% if you're a politician) that one of those two answers is correct.

Oh...unless it's "maybe"



...or "sometimes".

[HeyWayne]

I'm 100% certain (which equates to a 1,000,000% if you're a politician) that one of those two answers is correct.

Oh...unless it's "maybe"



...or "sometimes".

I have a friend you can phone.

No wait. They're engaged.

[OllieMartin]

As a slightly more helpful response to your question. They look like this:



Mine are this exact brand:

[HeyWayne]

Ah, the ones I've seen look like this:



It would appear that they're silcone rather than teflon. So not the ones you're talking about.

[OllieMartin]

Ah, the ones I've seen look like this:



It would appear that they're silcone rather than teflon. So not the ones you're talking about.

Hmm, I wonder how their application differs.

[Jeanied]

Just to quote my good friend Hey Wayne here

Are these the same things that almost everyone on any cookery programme at the moment is using to make twill biscuits?

I think we are onto a culinary idea here folks - the tuile biscuits are just a very thin biscuit batter mix baked till crisp - the leathers are just a thin fruit or veggie puree, dried till chewy. Now how can we use these to embellish another fruit / veggie dish?

[HeyWayne]

Just to quote my good friend Hey Wayne here

Are these the same things that almost everyone on any cookery programme at the moment is using to make twill biscuits?

I think we are onto a culinary idea here folks - the tuile biscuits are just a very thin biscuit batter mix baked till crisp - the leathers are just a thin fruit or veggie puree, dried till chewy. Now how can we use these to embellish another fruit / veggie dish?

Tuile (thank you for that) fruit leather! Genius.

Someone phone Dragon's Den!