Barb Hodgens
Barb Hodgens

Barb Hodgens loves to cook with alternative, healthy whole food ingredients, with a focus on gut health. Barb has overcome her own gut health issues through healthy eating. Share your ideas, comments and photos at the end of this post :)

pineapple

Naturally fun fruit snacks!

Fresh pineapple is sweet, refreshing and delicious but it’s not as transportable as other fruits, so it often gets overlooked. Dehydrating pineapple is possibly the easiest way to make it into a ready-to-go fruit snack, and without the mess. For a bit of variety, it’s lots of fun to make pineapple rollups or fruit leather instead. Made with real fruit, it’s so much healthier than the store-bought equivalent.

The method is just like making a smoothie. Once the pineapple skin is removed, it’s really a matter of chopping it up and throwing it in the blender jug. With the Vibe Blender System, you can even leave the core in – it’ll be super smooth (and frothy) in seconds. Depending on the variety and the sweetness of your pineapple, you may want to add some honey or maple syrup to cut the tartness. 

When dried the frothy blended pineapple creates a spongey fruit rollup. The texture combined with the fruit’s enzymes give you a fun tingling sensation on the tongue. If you dehydrate the pineapple for extra time, it becomes brittle and chip-like. Experiment and see what texture preference you enjoy most. If you have kids, we guarantee they will love dried pineapple leather, but gown-ups will love it too!

pineapple rollups

WATCH HOW ROLLUPS ARE MADE HERE 


INGREDIENTS 

1 whole pineapple, peeled and chopped
1-2 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup (optional) 

METHOD

1.   Choose a fresh pineapple that has a sweet ripe smell.
Slice off the top and bottom, then cut away all the sides, taking off the spines as possible.
2.   Chop the pineapple, including the core into small chunks and toss into the Vibe Blender jug.
3.   Blend on ‘smoothie’ mode for approx. 40 seconds or until you have a fine, smooth frothy puree. Note: some blenders will not have the power to pulverise the core.

pineapple rollups

4.
   Taste test. Add some sweetener if you like then pulse to combine.

5.   Set the silicon rollups sheets on the Breeze food dehydrator trays.
6.   Pour the pineapple puree into the silicon sheets. Use a spoon or spatula to work the mixture into the corners. Fill the sheets to capacity with an even coverage. If there is some pineapple puree left over – enjoy it as a smoothie.

pineapple rollups

7.
   Stack the trays in the dehydrator and set the temperature to 50°C/122°F and the time to 9 hours. After this time, if the centre is still wet or they feel sticky to touch, switch the dehydrator on for another 2 hours. When perfectly dried, rollups should feel a bit tacky and will peel away from the silicon tray easily. If pineapple puree is left on for around 12 hours, it will become brittle like a fruit cracker.

8.   Lay the pineapple leather onto pieces of baking paper to avoid it sticking together, then cut each one lengthways in half with scissors.
9.   Stack them or roll them, then store in an airtight jar or container.
10.  Pineapple rollups will store at room temperature for several few months.

LOVE FRUITY ROLLUPS? THEN TRY THESE STRAWBERRY ROLLUPS OR THIS PEACH FRUIT LEATHER.

If you make this, or any of our recipes, we would love to see your creations. Leave us a comment, or tag a photo using #luvelelife on Instagram.

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pineapple rollups (fruit leather)