Dehydrated Fruit Is My Fave Snack,…Right After Cookies!

I confess cookies are my all time favorite snack, but I’ve gained a new appreciation for dehydrated fruit from the types that I’ve tried.  The taste of the fruit slice actually gets sweeter after drying.  While reading tweets this week I found this message from Mik:

Dehydrated fruit is my go to snack now 👍

— Mik ✨ (@MikNowelle) February 12, 2015

I agree! Since it’s time to slim down for warmer weather, dried fruit is much better than cookies!  (Too bad it’s also Girl Scout Cookie time! Rats!)

For this week’s dehydration project, I returned to my favorite – apple slices – using an entire bag of Braeburn apples.  I’ve dried apples before, so this week, the experimental part came in when I tried different shapes.  In addition to typical slices, I used my mandolin to cut crosscut circle slices (through the core), and also created “apple fries” like I’d seen at the store.

For slices, I precut the apples with my apple slicer/corer, then cut the wedges into 3-4 slices each.  They must be very slender slices to dry into the crispy chips I like.  If they are cut thicker, it takes longer to dry, and they become gummy apple slices.

I dipped the slices in lemon juice and water (1:3 ratio) and laid them on a rack. The ratio of one part lemon juice to three parts water is strong enough to preserve the fruit, and mild enough not to have lemon flavored apples.  I like this better than using Fruit Fresh – nothing but natural in these chips!

Just for fun, I added pear slices too.  I’ve never dried a pear, so I decided to try it out with this batch of apples.

I went overnight this time, eight hours, and I’ll take a peek in the morning!  It was actually kind of nice to go to sleep to the scent of warm apples and pears, and I didn’t even have to light a candle!

Well, this all looks very good, but it wasn’t quite dry, so I put it back in for another two hours, and checked it after work.  That meant they sat after the drying cycle cooling for a few hours.  During that time, the slices crisp up a bit, no harm at all.

I was not impressed with the apple “fries.” The apple piece looks more like a wrinkled, old apple core, and it was flexible, not crisp.  It’ll get eaten, but I don’t think I’ll do this one again.  *Blah*  :oP

The apple rings?  They came out really nice!  They actually look like an apple “chip!”

They’re crunchy and sweet, just the way I like it.  They’re even slightly quicker to make than apple slices, but I don’t get as many of these per apple.

The pears slices were a big hit!  They were crunchy, sweet and very mild.  I really like them, but I think I’ll try different types next time, like I have with apples.  Many of my apple jars have a variety of apples slices and tastes in them, from very sweet to slightly tart – a real fall harvest of flavor!