Dehydrator problems

[jdb]

We have dehydrated a lot of things over the years but last night I ran into a big problem... I found a recipe for dehydrating cantaloupe with blue berries. 1 1/2 cups melon and 1 cup blue berries, put in a food processer or blender pour quarter inch thick dry for 6 to 9 hrs at 135 degrees. We have American harvest snack master dehydrators. The problem is the leathers have big cracks in them and have become very thin. When I processed the mix I used a Vitamix which is a blender on steroids and am wondering if the machine whipped to much air into the mix ? I have never made the fruit leather and am at a loss as to what happened. I now have 12 trays of hummm, blue stuff. Any suggestions as to what happened and if this can be salvaged or should I just try again would be appreciated. Thanks Dave F One other thing, The melons were fresh out of the garden and the blue berries were frozen, thawed not drained, I figured that draining them would drain flavor out of them too.

 

[salt and pepper]

I think you hit it on the head! Too much air and too much water.

 

[FrankZ]

Did you add apple as well?

 

[Oldvine]

I think the fruit combo/liquid wasn't right to dry properly. If I really wanted to blend them, I would run the fruits long enough make the whole combined (I'm looking for a word that is different from mess) mixture the same texture. The fiber in cantaloupe and blue berries are different and would dry differently, even separating. The same texture over all might dry better. Also, I'm not sure if frozen blueberries are the best choice for drying. Maybe, but it might require some specialized equipment. I'm no blue berry expert except as a consumer.