How to make fruit roll-ups. When you make a promise

When last Monday I told Aurelia that if she was obedient and helped me with her two brothers this week I would buy her some fruit roll-ups as a special treat, I didn't know how this suggestion would end.

If you have never tasted or seen a fruit roll-up, it is a very popular "healthy" snack, made of pectin based fruit. It comes flat and wrapped in cellophane because it has a quite sticky consistency. The costumer, usually a child, has to unwrap it.

Apparently, it has been very successful in the United States from the 1980s. As Philippines has a strong American influence, it is here too, specially in the school of ISM where Aurelia goes to.

The thing is, I completely forgot about those malditos (translation: "damn") roll-ups until yesterday afternoon when she reminded me in the car after I picked her up from the school. And again when we got home. Again when we went to the park, to have a bath, during dinner time, while reading her story before bed time...and when I WOKE UP!!!  When I went down to the kitchen at 6.30am she had handwritten on the fridge: "Mum goes to buy fruit roll-ups at S&R tomorrow" and before she left home, she added "now!".

So I had this pressure on me all day of getting the dammed fruit rollups because a promise is a promise. And also because I knew my daughter has my Spanish blood and wouldn't let me alone until she had them. She is a bit stubborn in matters related to food...although "the apple never falls far from the tree".

My inner pioneer or my ego, to be honest, decided that if I could make things from the scratch, such as pasta, ice cream, bread, ricotta cheese or yogurt, I was perfectly capable of making those fruit snacks. How hard could it be? Besides, it would be healthier than the bought ones.

But I didn't trust myself with this new experiment in my kitchen, and neither Aurelia who saw me to place all the ingredients on the counter: frozen wild berries, lemon juice, honey and applesauce. Before I was cooking the berries in the saucepan, Aurelia said :"oh, no, mum, you are going to make the healthy version, aren't you? what about if you also buy the roll-ups just in case these homemade are not good?". She had zero confidence in her mother's culinary skills. Who could blame her!

I left home at 8am with two big trays laid with berries puree in the oven, and specific instructions to my yaya to not turn it off! I rushed to S&R ( a big shop where you can buy in industrial quantities) to look for the rollups. I asked the filipino workers where to find them, I knew they didn't have any idea of what I was talking about because they smiled me back and replied : " Out of stock, ma'am".  Sometimes Filipinos are too shy to say they don't understand you, specially if you are a non-filipino so they tell you this gentle fib. No one gets offended.

With empty hands I got home, checked the fruit trays, touched them with my finger and to my surprise..it had worked! I was thrilled to make my very first rollups.  However, when I unwrapped one and tasted, it was to acidic for my liking. I felt a bit disappointed thinking that Aurelia wouldn't like them, as she predicted, and I didn't find them in the shop. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a promise.

Aurelia loved them, and Nick too. I was amazed and delighted by the healthy snack I made from  scratch. Next batch will be mango rollups, that's a promise! 

Berries fruit roll-up, 

recipe of Alana Chernila

Makes 32

• 3 pounds fresh or frozen fruit. I used frozen cranberries, blueberries, puree strawberries. 
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup of honey or to taste. These berries are very acid so you might need to adjust. I should have added a bit more.
• 1 cup of apple compote

1. Combine the fruit an lemon juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook until softened, about 30 minutes. 
2. Pass the cooked fruit through a food mill. Add honey and the apple compote.
3. Preheat oven to 165F. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Spread the puree over the trays and cook for 8 hours!!! or until dry to the touch.
4. Cut both sheets in rectangles and roll them!