In the spirit of all things trick or treat this Halloween, this Pumpkin Fruit Leather is the perfect balance between the two for your family. The trick is that pumpkin fruit leather is a healthier option than many of the sugar-laden snacks that we see this time of year. The treat is that this gluten free, homemade snack is tasty and your kids will love it!

Please note that this is a sponsored post. I developed this recipe in partnership with #Sprouts; ingredients were purchased at my local Sprouts store. I was compensated for my participation and all opinions are my own.

Have you made fruit leather before at home? A simple and short ingredient list along with basic preparation steps create this kid-friendly snack. A key ingredient not listed on the recipe? Patience. The baking time– really just the time that the pumpkin fruit leather dries out in the oven– is four to six hours. Yup, a long time. So plan ahead and the rest is easy.

Quality ingredients

Making pumpkin fruit leather at home gives you an advantage over the store-bought boxes of fruit leather that we grew up eating. Can you picture those rolls in your lunch box? Well here is an improvement for sure.

For starters, you can name all of the ingredients in this pumpkin treat. No dyes, no mystery flavors.

Organic pumpkin puree and organic apple sauce from Sprouts are the main ingredients. Pumpkin pie spice amplifies the flavor and the optional addition of honey really helps to create that familiar texture.

I made these both with and without honey and did prefer the honey version. The pumpkin fruit leather was easier to roll and simply had a better feel in your mouth. Try it and see what you think.

Why should you shop at Sprouts?

Let’s dive into these ingredients a bit deeper. The pumpkin puree, the apple sauce, the pumpkin pie spice and the honey are all Sprouts brand products.

Check out the list of ingredients for the pumpkin puree and for the apple sauce: Pumpkin and Apples. Nothing more and nothing less. Knowing that I am buying high quality products from Sprouts is important for my family.

More than 2,400 Sprouts brand products are offered in their stores. The focus is on quality and value.

How to make Pumpkin Fruit Leather

The process of making pumpkin fruit leather is so straightforward it hardly needs a recipe but let’s go over the steps together. Basically you combine the ingredients, spread them on a pan, then very slowly dry them out in the oven.

After you mix the short list of ingredients, spread the puree onto a parchment lined pan or a silicone mat lined pan. Keep the thickness between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick.

You don’t want to see any gaps in the mixture. You also don’t want lumps.

What’s the magic ingredient in making pumpkin fruit leather?

Patience is the magic ingredient!

Waiting for the fruit leather to slowly bake is the key to success. Don’t crank up the oven temp. Just be patient.

Expert Tips for Rolling Up the Pumpkin Fruit Leather

Flip the baked fruit leather onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper.
For seasonal Halloween fun, use cookie cutters to make shapes in the pumpkin fruit leather. Pumpkins, cats, bats, and witches would all be cute ideas!
Use a pizza cutter to slice the pumpkin fruit leather into 3 inch strips.
Roll tightly. You could tie the rolls with baking twine or just leave them as is. The rolls tend to hold their shape.