Au Natural Strawberry Fruit Roll Ups

Man, oh man! Where has time gone?! No, I haven't fallen into a black hole. No, I haven't given up on cooking (or eating). No, I haven't been traveling in the back country of some exotic place (unfortunately!). My silence has been the result of caring for a new baby in my life. Not a real baby (sorry, Mom)... THIS baby. I started my own photography business. On accident, almost. After photographing this friend and this friend and this friend and many others, it seemed like a natural progression of my work. And work it is! I love it, so it's the best kind of work... but on top of my full-time position here and a home remodel, sometimes it may seem that I have indeed fallen into a black hole.

Well, it is time to emerge at long last.

With summer here, I've got an abundance of produce in my fridge, on the counters and in containers all over the floor. After a few weeks of amazing strawberries at the farmers' market, I was afraid that I wouldn't see them for a while. So I went a little overboard with them this week, just in case. I had a few pounds more than I needed after making my favorite jam, daiquiris, strawberry mint limeade, ice cream, and eating them fresh by the handful. So I took a friend's suggestion and made strawberry roll-ups. Unlike the grocery store product, my roll-ups contain real strawberries. And that's it. No sugar, corn syrup, malodextrin, artificial flavors or colors. Crazy, I know.

This recipe is super simple. Really. It's just strawberries and water.

The strawberries get pureed, spread into a pan lined with parchment and baked at a very low temperature for two hours. If you want to use a dehydrator, that would be another option.

Au Natural Strawberry Fruit Roll Ups 
Ingredients:
4 cups strawberries (preferably organic), washed, hulled, halved
1/4 cups water
Optional additions: 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar; 1 vanilla bean, split (use both seeds and bean, but remove the bean before pouring onto the parchment). 

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 180 degrees F.
2. prepare a jelly roll pan by lining it with parchment paper.
3. Heat berries and water (and additional ingredients, if using) over medium heat in a 2 quart saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring. Allow berries to break down, about 6 minutes.
4. Turn off heat and let the mixture sit for 5 - 10 minutes.
5. Puree the mixture, using a hand-held immersion blender or regular blender.
6. Pour the puree into the jelly roll pan. Shake the pan to evenly spread the strawberry mixture. Use a rubber spatula to help spread it evenly, if necessary.
7. Bake for 2 to 2.5 hours. Check to see if the mixture has all solidified. The sides tend to set first.
8. Cool on a wire rack.
9. With kitchen shears, slice the roll-ups into thin strips or squares (or whatever shape you please!) while still on the parchment paper. Store on the parchment paper in a sealed container.

Enjoy!