Vegan Mofo Day 10: Plum and Anise Pleather

Okay so this might be my third recipe for fruit leather (which I like to call pleather because I'm charming) that I've posted to the blog. I'm toying with the idea of  a fourth. I really love them, they are so fun to eat and make and there is so much fructose goodness.

My inspiration for this one was what if a fruit leather met a spare rib? Not that I've had one of those in a while but I remember that plum and anise are a flavor match from heaven. I didn't want to make it all savory though. Still sweet (or lip puckeringly sour, adjust sugar to your liking) with just a hint of something lovely and grown up in those spices.

Plum And Anise Pleather 

500g Plums
2 whole star anise
1/4 teaspoon of Chinese five spice
Sugar to taste

First take the plums and the whole anise and place them in a saucepan. heat on low-medium until all the juices come out and the fruit is reduced to pulp.

Add your five spice and give it a taste. How much sugar you'll want to add at this point depends on the sweetness of the plums you started with and how you like it. Taste as you go adding a teaspoon at a time until you like it. I just used one teaspoon with mine but I warn you that it is full of lip pucker.

At this point we need to set our oven up. The pleather needs to dehydrate for about 10 hours in the oven. Preheat the oven to 60C and put some baking paper down on a couple of trays.

Back to your pulpy stuff. Press it through a sieve until you have nothing left but the bits that won't go through. You should have a fairly thick juice.

Spread your juice out on the baking parchment, thin as you can get it and pop it in the oven. It will take anywhere between 10-14 hours to dry out into a leather. It's done when it can come off the paper cleanly and is slightly tacky but not sticky on top.

Peel off and cut into shapes or roll up, Whatever you want.