Strawberry Fruit Leather

When strawberries are prolific and cheap like 10 kilos worth I bought at the market in October, put them to good use.
If you are not ‘jammy’ type of person, there are a myriad other things you can do with them to preserve the harvest. I’ve pureed them, frozen them whole and made strawberry sorbet and lots more.
Here is my recipe for fruit leather aka fruit roll ups. An old fashioned sport of English thing, but oh so good.
They can be made in a dehydrator or an oven, or even left in the sun, (covered with a net to keep out insects), to dry out.

To make 2 trays of fruit leather:

Fill your blender jug with washed and hulled strawberries
Add ½ cup sugar
Add ½ teaspoon vanilla paste
Blend on high speed until it’s smooth.

Pour onto paraflex sheets on your dehydrator tray or pour onto baking trays lined with baking parchment. I made mine about ½ cm thick.
Make sure the outside edges of the puree are thicker than inside as the outer edge dries and thins fist.
If drying in the dehydrator, set the heat to 115C and pop in the trays for 12 hours.
If drying in the sun it will take 2-3 days. Bring the trays in overnight and of course, avoid rain!
Cut the leather into strips with kitchen scissors and store between waxed paper in an airtight container.
They are a little tangy but still retain the absolute essence of strawberry. Delicious!