Pumpkin Spice Fruit Leather

Like many, we’re big fans of the iconic fall flavour profile. Across my blogs, I’ve got recipes for everything from a basic Pumpkin Spice Latte, Pumpkin Chai Latte, and Protein Pumpkin Spice Latte... to all kinds of baked goods, like Pumpkin Spice Cookies, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Mini Doughnuts, and Keto Pumpkin Spice Cookies.

I even have a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Chicken Jerky , here on this blog. Sure, it started as a joke... but it’s actually ridiculously tasty!

Anyway, this homemade fruit leather recipe takes pumpkin puree, and turns pumpkin spice homemade fruit roll ups!

It’s really rewarding to pick out whatever combination of fruits we’re in the mood for, and make our own fruit leather. You basically have unlimited options - far more than what you can buy in store-bought versions.

This tasty snack is also super easy to make - mix your pureed fruit with a little sweetener and whatever flavours you want, spread it out and stick it in the food dehydrator.

A few hours later, you have a healthy snack that cost far less to make, than it could have even been bought for.

And hey, in this case... how often do you see pumpkin spice fruit roll ups, anyway?

Let’s look at what you’ll need to have - and do - to get a batch of these on the go, yourself!

Ingredients

This recipe uses super simple ingredients that you can find in any grocery store. If you do any fall baking at all, you probably already have them on hand!

Anyway, I have a few ingredient notes for you:

Pumpkin Puree

You can use canned, store-bought pumpkin puree - I usually do - or homemade.

The big thing to keep in mind is that you want to use pure pumpkin, NOT “pumpkin pie filling”.

This recipe sweetens and seasons then pumpkin to TASTE like pumpkin pie filling... but canned pie filling contains a bunch of other stuff that you don’t want in your pumpkin leather.

Brown Sugar and Maple Syrup

While I usually say that sweeteners can be swapped for each other, I really recommend using the mixture of both in this recipe, at the proportions given.

This is both for flavour and texture reasons - swapping either for the other will affect the final product.

Everything Else

Rounding out the recipe, you’ll need a bunch of flavouring ingredients. These are:

Vanilla Extract
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Ginger
Nutmeg
Ground Cloves
Allspice
Salt

The only real note I have here is that if you’d prefer to skip all these spices and use a prepared pumpkin spice blend, use 1 Tablespoon worth of it.

Equipment

There are two specialized pieces of equipment that I use for making jerky, beyond basics like spoons, bowls, and measuring cups:

A Food Dehydrator

While you can apparently make homemade pumpkin fruit leather in a regular home oven, I’m not a fan of running one for hours on end.

Last year, I upgraded our crappy old dehydrator to a Cosori 6 Tray Food Dehydrator, and LOVE it.

It was only like $200 Canadian, and it’s paid for itself MANY times over, between all the Maple Cinnamon Apple Chips and jerkies I’ve been making!

Think of it this way - The same size of jerky that I tend to make goes for about $4 in a gas station.

I get about 10-15 strips out of a batch (varying by recipe) - let’s average that out to 12. That’s $48 worth of jerky, for $8 or less. Make 5 batches, that’s your $200 in savings!

Anyway, we’re using a dehydrator a LOT more, now that we have a nice one. Having the control over the temperature really opens up the possibilities.

Silicone Dehydrator Trays

You’ll need some Silicone Dehydrator Trays, with a bit of a rim.

The ones you’ll buy will depend on the size of your dehydrator. For our dehydrator, we use these Silicone Dehydrator Mats Compatible with Cosori CP267-FD.

With our size of dehydrator trays, this recipe uses 3 of them.

How to Make Pumpkin Spice Fruit Leather

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is the visual walk through:

In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients until well combined.

Note: I usually just chuck it all into a food processor or blender and let it rip.

Use an offset spatula to spread the mixture to an even thickness on each tray.

If it’s not dried yet, put it back in the food dehydrator until it is.

Use a pizza wheel or sharp knife to cut the pumpkin spice fruit leather into strips, then store in an airtight container - see notes below for to condition it.

Condition the Pumpkin Spice Fruit Leather

Keep an eye on the fruit leather for the first 3 days or so.

If you see any evidence of residual moisture in that time frame - droplets on the bag, etc - return the pumpkin spice leather to the dehydrator and let it dry a bit more.

If at any point you see any evidence of mold, throw the batch out.

Once you’re sure the spiced pumpkin leather is fully dry and moisture isn’t coming out, transfer them to an airtight container for longer term storage.

Other Dried Fruit - and Vegetable! - Recipes

Looking for fruit leather and other dried fruit recipes? Here are a few to get started:

Bananas Foster Banana Chips
Bananas Foster Fruit Leather
Beet Chips
Caramel Apple Fruit Leather
Cardamom Pear Chips
Chili-Lime Mango Fruit Leather
Mango Fruit Leather
Maple Cinnamon Apple Chips
Pumpkin Spice Chicken Jerky
Strawberry Banana Fruit Leather