Dehydrating Fruit

I love my little dehydrator.  It works awesome and gives me great little gems of fruity goodness, that won’t go off in 2 seconds flat.

I’ve been drying fruit and meats for a good while now.  Starting with doing it in a low oven with the door open, for jerky, and building a biltong box for larger cuts of meat.

I will get back to making a new biltong box, but for now my Andrew James Dehydrator is working a charm for most of my needs.

The great thing is most fruit and veg can be dried for later use.

dried fruit on your oats in the morning, as a quick snack in the day, any multitude of recipes are available online, some of which I will be trying and giving you a quick lowdown on at some point.

So onto the drying.

Drying fruit isn’t difficult, it’s amazingly easy.

It takes time, but you don’t have to do much. Cut It, Rack It and set the temperature.

The Andrew James Dehydrator works between 40 and 70 degrees Celsius. So about 160 degree Fahrenheit at the top end.  More than enough to dry fruit and meats without scorching or burning.

You don’t need much kit other than the dehydrator itself.  The rests are just general kitchen items.

If you are doing fruit leather, buy the sheets for your dehydrator.  I use the Andrew James specific ones, as they are pre cut correctly for me. You can get them here.

Generally speaking, you need to cut your fruit quite thin.  Less than half a centimetre thick.  Make sure as well, that all the fruit is fairly uniformed, as they will dry better, and at the same time.

Anything like Apple or Peach probably need to be dipped in some Lemon Water, just to keep them from going brown. You don’t need to, but it will make for a better looking end product.

Get the fruit on the trays about 2cm apart, to allow good airflow around the items.

Drying your Fruit

Switch the drier on at the required heat level, and make sure you have a timer, if there is not one on the dehydrator.

Anything Airtight and the stuff will last for a long time.  I use mason jars to store what i have, but sometimes use takeaway style boxes to keep costs down, and the fact it will be Eaten within a few days anyway!

Conclusion

I use my dried fruit a number of ways.  As a snack for long hikes or overnight photography tours, in my breakfast or dessert, cooked into breads or cakes.  There is so much you can do with it.

One of the main reasons I would dry my fruit, is if there is too much, and I need to preserve it somehow.  For instance, in a month or two I should have a huge glut of  Damsons and Plums.

A lot of these will need to be dried or made into sauce or jam.  And to be honest, who doesn’t like an amazing fruity snack at hand, at any time.

At some point the logical upgrade will be the Biochef Savana, with more trays and more control over the drying process. For now I am happy with the kit I have.

If I dry anything else, I will probably do some update blogs with some details, and experiences with different items.

I will Definitely be doing a Beef Jerky post, and a build on the creation of a biltong box.

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