So I got a dehydrator for my birthday this year and couldn’t decide what to dry first! I finally decided to try it out on some gala apples and a few lonely cranberries that have been hanging out at the bottom of the fruit drawer in the fridge. The recommendations I found for drying cranberries is to soak them in some sort of sweetener overnight. So I stirred up some honey in a bit of water and they sat in a jar in the fridge a few days.
The recommendations for drying apples say to treat them with something to prevent browning. Some of the options I saw were a citric acid solution, brine, or lemon juice. I don’t have any citric acid, so I did a little experiment with both the brine (I used ½ teaspoon in a cup of water) and a solution of lemon juice/water in equal parts.
The recipe book that came with my dehydrator suggested that apple rings should be dried for 6-12 hours at 145 and that they should be pliable when warm as they would be a bit more firm as they cooled. It warned against over-dehydrating them and making them crispy. I checked on them at 2.5 hours and they seemed the right texture.
The result of my little experiment? After drying, the lemon ones may be slightly more yellow, but both turned out a nice fresh apple colour … except for a bit of browning in the centre because I cored all the apples before slicing. In hindsight I should have cored one, sliced it and put it in the solution, and the cored and sliced the next, etc. I used my mandolin to slice the apples uniformly thin, which worked amazingly. I love my mandolin, even though it’s a little bit scary to use – it’s so so sharp!
The taste test – the lemon soaked ones do taste a bit sour, and the brine ones are just apple-y, not salty, so I think it’s brine for the win! It’s like apple candy! Now I’ve put them in jars and will let them sit on the table for a few days to watch for condensation on the jar – this means they’re not quite dry enough and I’ll have to stick them back in the dehydrator for a bit more time.
As for the cranberries, since they were much “chunkier” will definitely need more time. I think I’ll dry some pears when I through the cranberries back in. Yum! Do you have a dehydrator? What’s your favorite thing to make?
– Beck
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