Grape Fruit Leather

I don't makes things with grapes very often, because grapes tend to be expensive. But at the moment I happen to have access to a lot of Concord grapes, so I thought it would be fun trying to make something with them.

Since I also have access to a dehydrator, I decided on making fruit leather. I haven't really made fruit leather before. In the past we have generally used our dehydrator to dry apple slices and other fruit. But drying grapes would just make raisins, so I thought I should try something a little different.

The first task when making something with Concord grapes, I have learned, is removing the seeds. How you go about doing that is by "popping" the grapes - squeezing each grape until the insides pop out of the skin. You save the skins for later and all the insides go in a pot to be cooked briefly then put through an applesauce strainer.

Once the seeds have been removed you add the skins back in, along with some sugar, and cook the mixture on the stove for a while. Once it was cooked I used a blender to puree it.

The grape puree filled two trays in the dehydrator. I used one fruit tray that came with the dehydrator and I put parchment paper over a second tray and left it to dry overnight. Interestingly, the parchment paper tray did better than the other tray!

I thought it would be fun to roll the fruit leather up in long strips with wax paper, just like fruit roll-ups from the store! Kenneth wasn't sure what to think of it, but Steven really liked the "grape chips". I consider the fruit leather to be a success. Since there are so many grapes, maybe I'll make another batch!