Lunchbox recipes: Fruit crisps
Like the Post-It note, this recipe came about by happy accident. I was trying to make stretchy fruit leather, but our oven had other ideas. The resulting crispy shards of fruit make for a cool morning tea option that fits snugly into the lunch box. Reducing the stewed fruit and then baking it brings out plenty of natural sugars, so no need to supplement with any extra.
Ingredients
500g of squishy fruit, roughly chopped (stone fruit such as plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines and the like work really well, as do apples, pears and berries)
Method
Step 1
Preheat oven to 70C fan-forced (or, if you're lucky enough to have a dehydrator, use that).
Step 2
Pop your squishy fruit in a pot to simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 10 minutes, remove the lid and allow to bubble away and reduce for another 10 minutes. (Note: keeping the lid on will help the fruit sweat out some of its natural liquid and should mitigate the need to add any water. If you find that your fruit is refusing to yield, do feel free to give it a splash of water to kick things off – just not too much, as it'll dilute the flavour.)
Step 3
Once the fruit has softened sufficiently, blitz to a fine puree with a stick blender.
Step 4
Spread onto baking paper-lined trays at a thickness of about 3 millimetres.
Step 5
Leave in the oven for between 8-10 hours and prop open oven door with a wooden spoon to let any steam escape (the amount of time will depend on your oven and the moisture levels of the fruit). I find that leaving it to dry overnight does the trick.
Step 6
Break into crisp shards with your hands or use scissors to cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.
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