Fruit leather is a wonderful, healthy and traditional for Gabrovo region Bulgarian dessert. It is prepared from boiled fruits, strongly compressed during the boiling, sun-dried or in a drier. After drying, it is rolled up and kept in a dry place.
It is called Gabrovo chocolate in Gabrovo region. Autumn is the time when this delicacy is being prepared. The Balkan people traditionally prepare it from prunes which must be very well ripen and sweet. Other fruits also can be used – wild plums, apricots, peaches, apples, quinces, pears, medlars, etc.
The fruit leather actually is extremely healthy because no preservatives, colorants and sweeteners are added in its preparation, and the natural sweetness of the fruits is used. The traditional plum fruit leather is a curative “candy”, rich in pectin and vitamin C and contributing to better intestinal transit. “Gabrovo chocolate” energizes and stimulates the organism. When you want to eat something sweet, take several pieces of the healthy fruit leather and the sweet receptors will be satisfied, and the body will receive additional calories of energy from the fruits.
On the healthy food stalls in the food markets you can find the so called healthy, organic or bio raw desserts – in fact, representing similar to the fruit leather bars from dried fruits often with the addition of super foods or nuts. They supply the body with fast energy and are really the better alternative when you are about to buy a packed delicacy. Proteins from hemp, chia seeds, spirulina, coconut and so on are added, and finally a truly healthy “super” dessert is obtained.
To answer the specific question of the reader – the fruit leather is one really healthy delicacy, a natural candy, but as with any dessert, of course, we should pay attention to the quantity, as it contributes to the easy and quick additional import of calories.
Consumed in dessert quantities and replacing the dessert, it inevitably possesses countless health benefits. As for choosing the fruit, you may improvise and use the whole autumn palette of the garden. For more exotics and even more health benefits, add dried “super”- fruits – rosehips, goji berry, inca berry, chia seeds, crushed cocoa beans. The fruit leather is also an easy way to utilize the large amounts of fruits from the garden and to prepare a durable healthy dessert for your guests.
