Last Updated on June 20, 2024 by Michelle

I just briefly mentioned over on instagram something about how I make homemade fruit roll ups, and my inbox got slammed.

I had no idea so many people would want to know how to do this, but I gotcha covered…

Are Homemade Fruit Roll Ups a Thing?

Funny story, I don’t even eat these as fruit roll ups, in fact I’m not a fruit roll up fan, but making the roll ups is one step in making the amazing strawberry powder that I love.

To me, the leathery strips of strawberries aren’t an important step, but obviously to some moms out there it’s very important.

If you would love to replace those chemical-laden, store-bought fruit roll ups with the real deal, you’re in the right place.

Are Fruit Roll Ups Good for You?

Honestly I think it’s a little deceiving to even market those snacks that kids love as “fruit.” They’re not good for you at all, and maybe even worse because parents inadvertently think, “well, it’s fruit afterall, it’s gotta be better than most snacks…”

So what’s in those store-bought fruit roll ups?

Blue 1
Red 40
Yellow 5
Yellow 6
“natural flavoring”

That last ingredient should always alarm you. It’s not as innocent as it sounds. Manufacturers can put any chemicals they want into a snack under the guise of “natural flavors.” In the name of protecting their recipe and trademark secrets they can, quite frankly, sneak in addictive overly sweet or chemical-laden ingredients as part of their “natural flavoring.”

And what’s in homemade fruit roll ups? One ingredient. Fruit.

Is This a Good Way to Preserve Strawberries?

Whether you have kids who will gobble these us, or you’d like to preserve your strawberries in the easiest way possible, you want to save this recipe.

Fruit Roll Ups and the strawberry powder that I make are the best way to preserve strawberries. Because it’s so easy! You can pulverize the berries, stems, leaves, and all, and turn them into delicious strawberry powder for adding strawberry deliciousness and nutrients to all the things (more on that in a minute).

After a few wonderful hours of picking (and eating) fresh strawberries, I pureed 1 tray full of berries this way. (I’m talking those long rectangular berry trays they give you at the strawberry far, for picking, pictured above)

Because I want to preserve all the nutrients in the fresh-picked berries, I invested years ago in this vacuum blender. It’s not cheap, but quickly paid for itself, with all the smoothies, shakes, peanut butter, and dehydrated powders I make it in. I love knowing that these are all as high-powered in antioxidants as possible.

When you remove the oxygen before blending, you preserve the fragile enzymes that feed your body. And, bonus, I’ve never owned a blender that makes things so wonderfully smooth. Vacuum blending helps you create silky smooth results because there’s no more separation of the items you’re blending.

But, you can truly use any old blender at all. They’ll all make fruit roll ups that are 1000x superior to the processed and packaged ones.

Is it Easy to Make Homemade Fruit Roll Ups?

The best part of this amazing snack is how easy it is to make. If you’re using organic, clean berries, you can simply toss the entire berry–leaves, stems, and all–right into your blender. Seriously, no need to hull those berries. You’re welcome.

So once I blended up all those berries that filled that picking tray, I was left with more berry juice than would fit in my dehydrator, and my dehydrator is surprisingly roomy for it’s small footprint on my kitchen counter… it has 11 large trays (I love it cause it saves me so much time and electricity, filling it up once with most things I’m drying and being done.)

After filling my 11 trays, I had roughly 6-7 cups left over. which I put that in 1/2 gallon mason jar in fridge until I was ready to dry those separately, in the next round.

Six hours in the dehydrator and you have shear, amazing homemade fruit roll ups. With zero food coloring. Zero chemicals. Only strawberries. Now if your kids don’t think you have super powers now, well, you need to make sure they realize it.

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups

Use fresh, organic, clean strawberries for the best results. You won’t believe how easy this is…

Fill blender with whole strawberries (leaves, stems and all).
Puree until smooth.
Smooth out puree (removing any fruit chunks that may remain) on sheets like these on you dehydrator trays. (See notes.)
Dehydrate at 125 degrees for 5-6 hours.

Notes about Making Homemade Fruit Roll Ups

For my dehydrator, Roughly one cup of berry juice fills one tray. (To be exact, 7 cups of puree fills 6 trays.)
If you don’t have special tray liners, I’m told you can use parchment paper. I’m not overly confident of this, so please let me know your results if you try!

Making Strawberry Powder from Fruit Roll Ups

If you want to turn your roll ups into dehydrated powder, simply pulse the roll ups into powder in your blender (I highly recommend this vacuum blender). My 1 large tray of strawberries yielded 15 leather sheets, which then yielded 11.5 oz of powder (or 2 pint jars, both 3/4 full).

Go here for more details: How to Make Powder out of Dehydrated Foods.

How to Use Dehydrated Powder Made from Fruit Roll Ups?

Honestly I bet you can think of soooo many ways to use this powder but here are my favorite places to sprinkle my strawberry powder:

oatmeal
yogurt
cakes
icing
biscuits

Yep. You Have a New Super Power.

It’s that simple guys. And now you have a new super power.

I talk about my dehydrator, and why I’m in love with it–along with 11 other kitchen tools I’m kinda obsessed with–in this episode of my podcast:

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Kristin

May 13, 2023 at 1:06 pm

Well, if it can be done with strawberries it can be done with other fruits. I’ll let you know how it goes. I do believe I will go with the upgrade blender, keep the other for well quick and not so high tech.

Michelle
May 14, 2023 at 6:34 am

Yes! I’m sure it CAN be done with other fruits! Please let me know your results! And I LOVE this blender. I use it for everything… sometimes I won’t attach the vacuum attachment and just use it like a regular blender. It comes with a 15-year warranty, so it’s built to last.

Homemade Strawberry Fruit Roll Ups