Easy Fruit Roll-ups

These are so easy to make and my kids are loving them! Great to put in their lunches, have them take for a snack or just grab if they are hungry at home. Sometimes as I am making these I wonder if I am going back into the age when our world made more food rather than just bought them off of a shelf. Personally, after seeing how much sugar and other things that I can't pronounce are put into the fruit roll-ups that you can buy at the store I really prefer taking a few minutes to make these myself.

Here is how to make them...

You can use an oven set at a very low temp or a food dehydrator. I've tried to use the oven for this and the food dehydrator seems to work a lot better for me. The food dehydrator instructions will tell you the temp to use...mine is at about 135 degrees.

1) Find an applesauce you want to use. I have used regular applesauce, natural applesauce, some sprinkled with cinnamon. My kids really enjoy the cinnamon applesauce roll-ups.

2) Spray the tray you will be using with some non-stick cooking spray. This is a must if you want to actually be able to make the wraps rather than just peel and eat it off of the tray.

3) Dump the applesauce on the tray.

4) Spread it around. I try to have the applesauce a little bit thinner in the middle to help get the fruit to dry at about the same speed. The edges seem to dry faster than the middle. In the circle tray I just take a spatula and run it around the middle of the ring to even the layer out in the middle a little bit.

5) Let the fruit dry so it isn't squishy any more. I know...these are very technical cooking terms. :) In the dehydrator this usually takes 6 to 8 hours.

6) After it is dry enough, lay out some strips of wax paper. I have used saran wrap before but it is harder to peel the fruit off when you are ready to eat.

7) Peel the fruit off the tray and lay in strips onto the paper.

8) Roll up the fruit and store in the fridge until ready to eat.

I can usually get 3 to 4 trays for a food dehydrator out of one jar of applesauce.