In 1955 Little Richard recorded a song “Tutti Frutti” that became his first major hit record. The recording has been said to be “the sound of the birth of rock and roll.” Hopefully these tutti frutti chips will be a major hit in your kitchen.
Tutti Frutti means “all fruit” in Italian. Yes, these healthy chips are all fruit! I chose apples, bananas and some less than ripe strawberries to dehydrate (okay so I was romanced into buying strawberries too early in the season and they had no taste “fresh”).
There is really no recipe to make these chips. The major thing is to slice the fruit thin. It’s easier to do with apples and strawberries. The bananas were a bit more challenging. If you have a mandolin it makes slicing easy. I tried slicing the apples with a box grater that had a slicing side to it – didn’t work. The food processor slices thin enough but makes slices too small. Food shrinks when dehydrating, so wanted to keep the slices an average slice. I ended up slicing the fruit as thinly as I could with a knife.
The fruit looks shiny because I basted it with a mixture of lemon juice and water. I also sprinkled the strawberries with a dusting of sugar to bring out flavor – since these strawberries were not ripe.
I sprinkled cinnamon on the apples before dehydrating.
Dehydrated fruit doesn’t always look pretty but makes up for it in taste.
If using an oven, dehydrate the fruit at 140-200 degrees for 8-10 hours depending on the desired amount of doneness and thickness of the fruit. Check the fruit every few hours to determine if fruit is crisp enough. I like my tutti frutti chips crisp so I leave them dehydrating for an extra hour or two – except the bananas. I like them more crisp-chewy. Fruit will continue to crisp a little as they cool.
So the next time you hear Little Richard’s song “Tutti Frutti”, you may just feel like dancing around or making tutti frutti chips.