This tart cherry fruit leather is a healthy, all-natural snack you can easily make at home — perfect for pre- or post-workout fuel.
The 7-Day Tart Cherry Juice Challenge just wrapped up, and the timing couldn’t have been better for testing how tart cherries support recovery.
That week at CrossFit included:
100 lunges
100 pistols
95 pull-ups
10 rope climbs
200 double unders
65 thrusters
50 box jumps
a timed mile run
We finished the week with Fran, and I ran a Spartan race the next day.
I managed two servings of tart cherries most days — a glass of juice in the morning, mixing concentrate into yogurt, enjoying a bowl of tart cherry chocolate granola, or adding dried cherries to a post-workout smoothie with protein powder.
Certain movements always leave me sore — pistols and thrusters especially. After the 100 pistols and 45 thrusters the day before Fran, I expected to hobble through the Spartan race. Instead, I finished the race and felt surprisingly okay the next day: tired, but not stiff and aching for days as I usually am.
Post-workout soreness stems from inflammation, muscle damage, and oxidative stress. Compounds in tart cherries are thought to help reduce those responses when consumed before and after exercise. After trying the challenge, I’m a believer — I noticed less lingering soreness than usual.
Fruit leather is another easy way to get tart cherries into your routine for recovery. While drinking cherry juice is simple, homemade fruit leather is a fun snack that’s straightforward to make and lets you control the ingredients — no corn syrup, no hidden concentrates, just cherries and wholesome additions.
If you want to try the 7-Day Tart Cherry Challenge, dried tart cherries and tart cherry juice are available in many stores.
For more snack ideas, try these:
Air Fryer Apple Chips
Cookie Dough Bars with Chocolate Chips and Tart Cherries
Homemade Chocolate Granola Bars
Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies
Tart Cherry Fruit Leather
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
- 1/4 cup tart cherry juice
- 1/2 cup water
- zest of 1 lime
- juice of 1/2 a lime
- 2 tablespoons honey or agave
Instructions
- Soak dried cherries in the cherry juice and water overnight.
- Place cherries with the liquid into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to a small saucepan, add the lime zest, lime juice, and honey or agave. Simmer about 5 minutes over medium-low heat.
- Preheat the oven to 170°F (or the lowest setting available).
- Spread the mixture in a thin, even layer on a large baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Bake for 6–8 hours, rotating the sheet every hour, until the fruit leather is just lightly tacky.
- Carefully peel the fruit leather from the mat or parchment and cut into strips.
- Store with parchment between strips in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 55 kcal | Carbohydrates: 14 g | Sodium: 24 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 12 g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximation.
Additional Info
Course: Snacks
Cuisine: American
*This post is sponsored by Choose Cherries. All opinions and content expressed are my own. This post also contains links to affiliate products; any revenue from those links helps support this blog.