Peach Leather

Two-ingredient peach leather using ripe summer peaches and a single cup of sugar to coax 10 cups of cooked fruit into glossy, chewy strips. The kind of thing you make at the height of peach season when the boxes are stacked at the farm stand and you can’t possibly eat them all fresh.

The peaches get peeled, cooked briefly with sugar, then puréed and spread thin over plastic-wrapped sheet pans. From there you pick your method: 20-plus hours of full sun under a screen (the traditional way) or low and slow in a 150°F (65°C) oven with the door cracked open. The leather is ready when it peels cleanly off the plastic in one piece.

Spread the purée at a consistent thickness, about ⅛ inch. Thicker spots stay tacky and sticky; thinner spots dry to a crisp shatter. Use the back of a spatula and eyeball the depth as you work across the pan.

Fully ripe fruit is the only ingredient that matters. Hard, underripe peaches won’t sweeten enough during the brief cook, and overripe ones turn the leather a muddy brown.

Pro Tips

• Cool the purée fully before spreading. Hot purée melts the plastic wrap.
• If sun-drying, cover with a fine mesh screen propped on cans or jars to keep insects off without trapping moisture against the surface.
• Test for doneness by peeling a corner. It should release in one continuous sheet without leaving residue on the plastic.
• Roll the finished leather inside its plastic wrap and store at room temp (1 month), in the fridge (4 months), or frozen (up to 1 year).

Variations

• Substitute strawberries, apricots, plums, or pears in equal amounts.
• Combine fruits: peach-raspberry or peach-strawberry blends are particularly bright and pretty.
• Reduce or omit the sugar entirely if your fruit is very ripe and sweet. The leather will be tarter but still keeps well.