It may be surprising to learn that fruit leather is a classic Lebanese sweet, but it's not so surprising that the original is apricot. Always apricot and never, ever anything other than apricot, which is the most beloved fruit of the fruit-loving Lebanese.The original Lebanese version of fruit leather is a thicker, sticky apricot paste folded like a letter and wrapped in orange cellophane. It’s called amerdeen (um-er-DEEN; also qamardeen and qamar el edeen), it tastes of super-concentrated dried apricots, and at home we always considered it a treat of a day when the orange package showed up on the kitchen counter for us to tear into. When I was in Lebanon last year, I loved seeing Lebanese candies that layer amerdeen with pistachio nougat or rose jelly. There was a beautiful box of these waiting in our room at the Four Seasons in Beirut, and then again sold from the back of a guy’s car in a small village where we stopped near the Chouf mountain area, and still more in the beautiful Dwaihy pastry shops there. It was on that trip that I started to imagine making my own fruit leather, even if it probably wouldn't dry in the sun all day as it's done in homes over there.
Homemade fruit leather is far easier than I imagined, a puree of fruit and sugar baked at a low temperature. I like to cook the fruit first for added depth of flavor. —Maureen Abood
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