I wish I could give you all a piece of this fruit leather to eat right this minute! It has the best, truest grape flavor I think I’ve ever tasted. This leather is sugar free and made with nothing but ripe concord (or “wild”) grapes. And although the process is really easy — and you need nothing except the grapes themselves — it takes time. This is special stuff; the taste is so worth it, and when you take a bite and think about the process from start to finish, you’ll appreciate this fruit leather even more.
I find that it feels really good to deeply savor each morsel of food like this; so different from mindlessly feeding our faces, isn’t it. I bet if we were the ones responsible for the extensive work required to prepare everything we ate, we’d slow right down and savor every single bite!
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Concord Grape Fruit Leather
Concord grapes (that’s the only ingredient!)
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1. Begin by making my Grape Freezer Jam with your concord grapes. But go ahead and leave it unfrozen…or, thaw it out if it’s already frozen.
2. Preheat oven to 200°F. (You could also use a dehydrator.)
3. Tear off a piece of parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet. You could also generously oil your cookie sheet, but parchment is a lot easier to peel the leather off of.
4. Using a spatula, spread your Freezer Jam onto the cookie sheet, taking the extra time to spread as thinly and evenly as possible; it takes a few minutes to get it just right. Spreading it as evenly as possible is important because otherwise some parts will be overdone and other parts will be underdone.
5. Put into the oven and let it dehydrate until the fruit leather is pliable…not wet, but not hard & brittle either. Mine usually takes about 2 1/2 hours.
6. Remove from the oven, cool for a while, peel your fruit leather off the parchment, roll it up, and cut into strips! Store either at room temperature or in the fridge. I like to keep mine in a mason jar in the pantry.
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When I’m on the go and need a good snack, I’ll often pack a roll or two of this fruit leather, along with a bag of homemade kale chips. It’s perfect!
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Wow, that looks wonderful. What a deep, scrumptious color.xxx
Yum! I can’t wait to make some! I haven’t seen any Concord grapes in my area yet. How long does it keep (not that it would matter, since my family would devour it before a week had passed)? I’m just wondering if I could hide a little somehow.
Hi Deb
I’m not sure how long it keeps, but I’d say many months. I still have some from my first batch that I made about 6 weeks ago; I’ve kept it at room temperature in a glass mason jar, and it shows no signs of going south anytime soon.
Oh my, this looks amazing! I would use my grape freezer jam but last night while making it I let it burn in the pot! It was terrible! I will try again this weekend while morning the loss of those delicious little grapes 🙂
Aja I’m so sorry to hear of your burnt jam! When I ruin special food like that it makes me really really sad. Hope you can get more and try another batch.
That looks soooo good!!
I came upon your site while looking for recipes for Muscadine ( Wild Grape)Jam. Some say that you have to dehull and deseed before cooking down. DO you have any experience with this? I have about 5 gallons of Muscadine Grapes waiting to be processed lol
Hi Therese!
Wow five GALLONS! You’ve got your work cut out, eh! You know, I bet I’ve used muscadines. I gather lots of “feral grapes” from alleyways, and have likely used some of these. And if I have, the jam has turned out great.
My suggestion would be to do a test batch with only some of your muscadines. Go through the whole process WITHOUT removing skins and seeds (which would be a huuuuuge pain, wouldn’t it…), taste the end result, and decide if you like it! I bet it’ll be delicious.
All my best!
Lindsey
we all ready put our grapes through our juicer and have pure juice, can you also make leather from just the juice?
Lynda,
Good question! I haven’t tried this. If you do, let me know how it goes.
Not bad! I used my foley food mill and spread the purée on a parchment lined sheet. It took just under 3 hours in the oven at 200degrees. It’s a little sour but good for being pure. Thanks for the recipe..
Thanks for the recipe, kids absolutely love it. We like to mix the concentrated grape juice with some blended apples or pears to make larger batches of fruit leather.
Ben, that’s a great idea to stretch the grape with apples or pears. Thanks for a good tip!!
Does anyone sell these that are homemade. I can not find any homemade fruit leather for sale. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Hi Jackie,
Not that I know of. Good luck.
Do this turn your fingers purple when handling/holding and eating them?
Hi Emily,
No, no purple hands that I recall. The leather is tacky, similar to the fruit leather you’d buy at the store.
I boiled my grapes, got interrupted and put them straight into the fridge, still in the pan. How many days can they stay in the fridge this way before they go bad? I hate to waste them!!
Les,
They’ll be fine in the fridge for as long as anything else would last and perhaps even a little longer. I’d give it a week, say; 10 days tops.
Am I doing something wrong that it takes up to 5 to 6 hrs to get the grapes thick enough to jar? I have temp on low to simmer the whole time.
Emily this is correct – it takes a long time on a low simmer. Yep.
Followed your instructions (and yes it took about 4 1/2 hours on low to finish) but the jam is fantastic! Thank you! Am looking forward to finding more treasures on your site 🙂
Jenn,
Excellent! I’m so happy to hear you had success with the jam. Isn’t it good?! I love it. I always make mine this way now. Thank you for leaving a comment letting me know 🙂
Could a step be skipped, i.e. just pour strained grape juice onto the parchment paper without first thickening it? It seems it would be easier to get evenly thin. It would need more time in the oven but it would skip the hours simmering in the pot.
Laura, sure you could try it this way. You’re right it would be easier to get it the same thickness. I would personally rather cook down in the pot but perhaps you have an oven that has a good exhaust system that could remove the moisture more efficiently than most ovens would. A dehydrator could also be used in this scenario I would think; I don’t have one but seems it would be a good time to use one.
I recently made a peach butter recipe that cooked down and thickened for several hours in an open crock pot. I didn’t have to worry about scorching the fruit puree. I think I might try this recipe with the crock pot. Also, another hint, pick grapes after there has been a cold spell and they will be much sweeter. Love grape season! My house smells so good!
Sharon THANK YOU for these comments! Such a great idea to do the open crock pot method; why didn’t I think of that! 😀 Fabulous.
And yes – grapes left on after light frost are sweeter, as are apples. Wintersquash and cabbage also benefit from light frost, for flavor. If you do leave grapes on till they’re well and truly ripe, they will be almost too sweet. Thanks Sharon for taking the time to comment. I love grape season too!
How long will the grape leather last if put in mason jars
A great use of CSA share concord grapes. I have two sheets in the oven now! Thanks for the recipes.
Well I made this today out of my home grown Concord grapes. Mine did not turn the beautiful purple that yours shows. It tastes nice though . Tart ( I added 1 C of sugar and a little liquid stevia . I’ll certainly try it again next year.
I have a good producing orchard but after canning over 200 qts I will make fruit leather with the rest. Grapes, peaches, apples, plumbs and pears all work about the same. Cooking seems to make things keep longer but fruit leather with 8 grandkids does not last long. I puree any fruit to a smooth consistency, with grapes I pour off some of the juice for natural grape juice. I always air dry everything outside in the shade and covered with a bug proof screen. It takes from 6 to 12 hours depending on the outside air temp. I just pour the puree on to a small sheet of plywood that is covered with parchment paper, even out the puree, cover with my screen and go about my day. With air drying I have never over dried a batch. I do all of my cooking down in an uncovered 8 qt. crock pot set on low with the lid off. Last year I started making Tomato Leather, put some jalapeno peppers and onions in the mix, everyone loved it. Thanks for tips, always enjoy
Made your recipe with green and red Concord grapes. Excellent, I also made the jam last week excellent too. I used the oven. I’m a little worried about storage as I want them to last for upto 6 month. Planning on putting them in a freezer bag and storing them in the fridge. I changed the sugar for Stevia. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Roger – Excellent idea about the crock pot to cook down the grapes jam. I also love the idea of air-drying the fruit leather. That would work really well in dry Colorado. Thank you for commenting and giving these tips! I appreciate it.
Started to make the jam but as it was simmering, on low, it eventually started to smell like it was going to burn…so then I tried to make the fruit leather with it because it hadn’t set up enough….after several hours in the oven THAT even started to burn before it was done…..I’m apparently not destined to make jam or leather with my yummy grapes…what a Bummer…yours look amazing though!
How long about do we think this will store in the shelf?
It will store indefinitely Iris!
Savanna,
Oh darn, I’m so sorry it didn’t really turn out for you. I think the key may be using even lower heat for both the jam and leather.