If you love fruit leather and sour candies, then Sour Cherry Lavashak is for you. This chewy, stretchy homemade cherry fruit leather is so tart it’ll make your mouth pucker.
What is Lavashak?
Lavashak is the Iranian version of fruit leather. It was first made during the Achaemenid Empire (over two thousand years ago!!) as a way to preserve fruit for long journeys. Ancient Persians and modern Iranians alike have been enjoying it ever since.
Traditional lavashak is made from fruits native to the Caspian Sea area (like sour cherries, plums, apricots, apples, and pomegranates). Unlike Western fruit leathers, lavashak contains little or no sugar.
You might have heard of lavash, which is a type of flatbread found in places like Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Lavashak shares the same etymology. Makes sense, right, because both are in the shape of thin, flat sheets.
Past the foothills and into the meagre flats that lie directly before the sea, swaying green fields of tea and shimmering bogs of paddy lined the road leading to the coast. Every so often we drove through a village, its shops laden with the inflatable toys and beach-balls that announced the imminent arrival of the sea next to large discs of deep-red pressed fruit (usually sour cherries) called lavashak flapping temptingly in the breeze.
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What Youโll Need to Make Cherry Fruit Leather
You only need three ingredients for this Sour Cherry Lavashak recipe (and two of them are optional)!
Sour Cherries: I’ve just helped my parents harvest a huge crop of sour cherries this year from the cherry tree in their yard, so this was a perfect opportunity to make some lavashak.
Sour cherries (scientific name Prunus cerasus) are native to Iran and other areas around the Caspian Sea. Ancient Persians were cooking with sour cherries for millenia!
There are two main sour cherry varieties: morello and amarelle. Morello is a dark red cherry while amarelle (which is the type of tree my parents have) is a lighter, bright red. In Iran the more common variety is the morello cherry, which in Farsi is called albaloo (ุขูุจุงูู).
Btw, you can use regular sweet cherries for this recipe, they will work just fine. And obviously your rollups will be much sweeter.
Sugar: If you want your fruit leather to taste more like the storebought ones, then definitely add some sugar. Sour cherry lavashak made without any added sugar is extremely sour. It’ll make your mouth pucker.
Salt: Traditional lavashak also has a bit of salt added, giving it a sour and salty flavour.
For a full list of ingredients and quantities, refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step-by-Step Process
Step 1: Wash and pit the sour cherries.
Step 2: Cook the cherries in a saucepan or deep skillet on high heat.
Step 3: After 10 minutes, the cherries should be broken apart and very soft, swimming in their own juice.
Step 4: Let the cherries cool slightly, then pour into a blender. Add sugar and salt at this point if using.
Step 5: Blend until the purรฉe is smooth. Because the cherries are so soft, it will only take a few seconds.
Step 6: Pour into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. I didn’t use parchment for this photo and later realized that was a mistake. It was a huge pain to scrape off the pan!
Note: Cherry leather is stickier than many other fruit leathers. Even if you use a nonstick baking sheet, I strongly recommend lining it with parchment paper.
Step 7: Dehydrate until the fruit leather is tacky and can be peeled off in one piece. It shouldn’t feel moist or squishy to the touch.
Step 8: While the cherry leather is still warm, roll it up into a tight log. Let it rest for an hour before slicing into smaller pieces.
Tip: Resting the fruit leather after rolling allows it to cool and become less sticky. It will also hold its shape better when cut. It also helps to dip your knife in water between cuts to prevent the cherry fruit leather from sticking to the knifeblade.
Storage Tips
Store lavashak at room temperature, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.
Most lavashak lasts an incredibly long time. And sour cherry lavashak has an even longer shelf life than usual because of how sour it is. Natural preservatives, babay.
I’ve kept lavashak around for over two weeks, without any changes to the taste. I’m sure it would be fine for even longer, but I’ve never managed to go any longer than that without eating it all. Just make sure to keep it well-wrapped or else it will dry out and/or attract bugs.
Recipe FAQs
Lavashak is made from just one ingredient: fruit! It’s usually made with cherries, plums, apples, pomegranates, or apricots, mashed and cooked down, then spread into sheets and dehydrated. Sometimes salt and sugar are also added.
Yes, most lavashak is very tart and sour. This is the main difference between lavashak and Western fruit leather. Lavashak often has very little sugar added so it’s less sweet and more sour than typical fruit rolls.
The most common English name for lavashak is fruit leather, though other names include fruit jerky and fruit roll-ups.
People have been making fruit leather for thousands of years! Historically, in the age before refrigeration, fruit leather was a way to preserve fruit for long periods. Armenians have been enjoying fruit leather, called t’tu lavash or bastegh, since the 13th century. In Turkey, the same thing is called pestil. Georgia has their own version called tklapi, usually made with apricots or peaches. In China, kids have been enjoying hawthorn leather (guodanpi) for centuries. And of course, we have lavashak from Ancient Persia which has been made since the days of the Achaemenid Empire, which was nearly three thousand years ago. As far as I can tell, this Persian lavashak is the oldest example of fruit leather, though it’s likely that many different areas arrived at the idea of fruit leather independently.
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Recipe Card
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Sour Cherry Fruit Leather (Lavashak)
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
- Saucepan or skillet with high sides (non-stick works best; I'm using a HexClad 10-inch frying pan)
- Half-sheet pan (or two quarter-sheet pans)
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
Switch between volume vs weight measurements:
- 4 cups sour cherries
- ยผ cup sugar *optional; see Note 1
- โ tsp salt *optional
Instructions
- Wash and pit 4 cups sour cherries.
- Put the cherries into a saucepan or deep skillet and cook on high heat for 10 minutes. The cherries should be broken apart and very soft, swimming in their own juice.
- Turn off the stove and let the cherries cool down.
- Pour the cherries into a blender. Add 1/4 cup sugar and 1/6 tsp salt (if using).
- Blend until the puree is smooth. Because the cherries are so soft at this point, it will only take a few seconds of blending.
- Pour into a half sheet pan (18ร13) or two quarter sheet pans (9ร13 each) lined with parchment paper. (See Note 2.)
- Dehydrate in a 170 ยฐF oven for 6 hours, or until the fruit leather is tacky and can be peeled off from the parchment in one piece. It should not feel moist or squishy to the touch.
- While the cherry lavashak is still warm, roll it up into a tight log.
- Let rest for 1 hour before slicing into smaller pieces. (It helps to dip your knife in water between cuts to prevent the fruit leather from sticking to the blade.)
Notes
- Sugar is optional, but note that without any sweeteners, sour cherry lavashak is very sour. This is the more traditional flavour (no added sugar), and if you like sour candy then this is perfect for you. But you have been warned.
- Parchment paper is very important! Cherry leather is stickier than many other fruit leathers. Even if you use a nonstick baking sheet, I strongly recommend lining it with parchment paper.