One Simple Trick To Dehydrate Fruit At Home

Do you like candy? Don’t answer that. Either you’ll say “no” and you’ll be lying, or you’ll say “yes” and you’ll want to grab a bag of candies and start eating. But candies are full of refined sugars, glucose, fructose, and other harmful ingredients. So how do you satisfy your sweet-tooth?

Dehydrated fruit is a great treat. The natural sugars in fruits make them sweet, making them the perfect snack. But have you bought dehydrated fruit from the grocery store recently? It’s expensive. It comes in excess packaging. And there could be sugars and other added ingredients.

Dehydrating fruit at home is easy

You don’t need to buy an expensive dehydrator. It may take a little while, but your oven works just fine. All you need to do is bake at a low heat for a long time. Using a higher heat will take out more moisture and a lower heat will leave the fruit pieces slightly chewier.

It’s your candy - so make it how you want! Here’s the very simple instructions, along with a few different fruits that are easily dehydrated. They’re great as a snack in your kids’ lunch, a mid-morning pick-me-up, or even in a nice, healthy dessert.

How To Dehydrate Fruit

• Set your oven to 135-200℉ - any hotter and you’ll be baking instead of dehydrating.
• Clean, core & stem your fruits. You don’t need to peel them, but can if you wish. Some (apples, bananas, etc…) need to be sliced. The thickness of the slice determines how quickly the fruits will dehydrate.
• Place the fruit on a dehydrator sheet or oven sheet, and into the oven. Most fruits take several (6-10) hours to dehydrate. Some may take longer.
• None of these times and temperatures are set in stone. Play around with heating, timing, and consistency; check often, and perfect your recipe!

Apples

Apples take anywhere from 10-20 hours to fully dry in the oven, depending on the type of apple and how thick they’re sliced. If your oven is set higher than 200℉ you’ll probably end up with apple chips (which are also delicious).

Sweet flavorful apples are said to work best. Here’s a list of which apple types are best to dehydrate:

• Gala
• Fuji
• Golden Delicious
• MacIntosh (my fave)
• Whatever your favorite is!

Cherries & Berries

Blueberries, cranberries, and strawberries all do very well in the oven and take very little effort to prepare: just spread them out on a baking tray and toss it into the oven. Cherries need to be pitted before going in the oven.

Set your oven to 135℉ and bake cherries or berries for 10 hours. You can reduce the time to 6-8 hours by upping the oven to 200℉ - just be sure to check more often to ensure you get the texture you’re aiming for.

Bananas

Peel and cut your bananas to whatever thickness you desire. Set your oven to the lowest setting (125-200℉) to avoid scorching or burning the outsides. The longer you leave banana slices in the oven, the more likely you are to get banana chips.

Most tutorials say to dip the bananas (and other fruits) in lemon juice to kill bacteria and prep it properly for dehydrating.

Here’s a great list of fruits to dehydrate. You’ll need to find cooking times, but as I mentioned before, these numbers are merely suggestions. Trial and (hopefully not lots of) error is the best way to figure out how to dehydrate fruit just the way you like it.

Enjoy your homemade candies. And if you bake the fruit for too long, enjoy your homemade chips.

Sources

http://buynongmoseeds.com/how-to-make-healthy-dehydrated-fruits/