Kombucha SCOBY Fruit Leathers
Dale and I brew our own kombucha, and as a result we have a lot of extra SCOBYs to deal with on a regular basis. The word SCOBY stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It is the home for the beneficial bacteria and yeast that are responsible for fermenting your kombucha, and it is a gelatinous biofilm that can be quite a turn-off for those who don’t like slimy things. As you brew your kombucha, the SCOBY grows in size, and with each new batch, you produce a new SCOBY. Therefore, you end up with a continuously replicating SCOBY, and with each batch, you need to remove the oldest SCOBY since it is no longer needed. While we could just throw the old SCOBYs in the compost, we prefer to reuse them, and our favorite thing to do with them is make SCOBY fruit leathers! Normal fruit leathers are made by pureeing fruits of your choice and dehydrating them. SCOBY fruit leathers are the same, except you are adding pureed SCOBY into the mix. Many are turned off by this when they touch a fresh slimy SCOBY, but when dehydrated, the slime goes away and actually turns into a perfectly soft chewy texture. I actually prefer this texture over regular fruit leathers which can be too rough and tough. An added benefit is that you get a nice burst of probiotics, assuming you dehydrate at the lowest temperature possible (so you don’t kill the beneficial organisms). I got the idea for SCOBY fruit leathers from the amazing book, The Big Book of Kombucha. For anyone who brews their own kombucha, this book is a must-have!
Ingredients:
For strawberry banana:
1 large SCOBY (about 12 inch diameter) or 2 regular SCOBYs (about 6 inch diameter)
3 bananas
25 strawberries
For mixed berry:
1 large SCOBY or 2 regular SCOBYs
7 strawberries
18 oz package of blueberries
Optional: Create your own concoction with your favorite fruits/veggies!
Instructions:
Cut up SCOBY and large pieces of fruit into chunks (this makes it easier to feed into the food processor).
Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
Spread mixture onto dehydrator sheets. I would recommend purchasing additional dehydrator sheets so you can make a bigger batch. You want to spread the mixture up to the brim since it will shrink as it dehydrates.
Set dehydrator to the lowest temperature (to avoid killing the microbes in the high heat). Our lowest setting is 90 degrees.
Because the temperature is so low, it may take a day or more to dehydrate the snacks. You can tell they are done when they easily peel off the sheet without leaving any residue.
