How to Dry Fruit
Step 1: Find your fruit
Most fruits can be dried easily, but whatever you choose, be sure the fruit is ripe (but not over ripe!) and in good condition. You can dry apples, pears, apricots, bananas, peaches, berries, cherries-any fruit, really.
Wash or peel fruit, then pit or core them. Slice your fruit to any thickness you choose, keeping in mind the thicker the slices, the longer it will take them to dry. Be sure to keep slices uniform or else some will be too dry while others won't be dry enough. Fruits with skins—blueberries, apricots, cherries—should be washed well and dried whole.
Steaming fruits before you dry can speed up the process—3-5 minutes will do the trick. You can also prep these fruits and pears by letting them hang out in a bowl of lemon water—squeeze one lemon into 12 cups of water—for a few minutes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment and place slices of fruit on the sheet, making sure the pieces of fruit aren't touching each other. Place trays of fruit into the oven and turn on the oven to 90°F to 150°F. Then just sit back and wait, as it will take many hours for the fruit to dry. Resist all urges to turn up the heat—you don't want to cook the fruit, just dehydrate it. Test the fruit every so often to see if it's ready-fruits should be chewy, not squishy, and if it's crunchy—well, you've gone a bit too far.
Once the fruit is out of the oven, let dried fruit sit out overnight (at least 12 hours) before packing it away in containers.
It's a good idea to freeze the fruit for several days in a deep freezer (not a refrigerator freezer, as they're not quite cold enough), or heat the fruit in an oven at 175°F for 10-15 minutes to zap any insect eggs that may be living in the fruit.
And just like that, you have your own dried fruit. Sure, it may take a while, but at the end of the day you'll have some fantastic, healthy dried fruit perfect for those mid-day and late-night cravings
DRIED FRUIT ADVANTAGES
Part of the food pyramid says that we need to eat fruit on a daily basis. Much of our vitamin C comes from fruits and fruit juices. Learn how dried varieties of fruits are both good and marginal for our bodies.
Certain fruits can be dried for prolonged storage. We buy fresh fruits from the grocery store and the farmer’s market as a part of a healthy diet. But, fresh doesn’t say fresh for as long as we like. One way to save that fruit is to dry it.
The drying process can be as easy for you as sticking some fruit directly on the oven rack and letting it shrivel up. Once all of the water has been removed, the dried fruits can be stored in a cool place for a long time. Dried fruit also tastes much sweeter than regular fruit.
A piece of fruit is mostly water. The drying process concentrates the natural sugars and can feed our sweet tooth better than candy and other sweet foods. Also the vitamins and nutrients contained in the fruit are still present. Depending on the fruit, it contains folate, antioxidants, vitamin C, and vitamin A
Dried fruit takes up less space than regular fruit. A cup of pineapple slices may contain four slices while a cup of dried pineapple slices may have twice as many. Since there is no water less it takes up less space. A handful of raisins give the same daily benefit as two cups of grapes.
Dried fruit benefits our bodies with natural sugar instead of added sugar. Eating some fruit is much better than eating artificially flavored sweets. But, there is one drawback to dried varieties of fruit.
Like everything else, dried fruit is eaten in moderation to avoid eating too much. While it is okay to eat a lot of real fruit, dried fruit contains more calories than regular fruit. Why is that, you may ask? Because more fruit fits in a serving, the calorie add up. Be careful to eat the serving size of dried fruit to avoid ingesting too much sugar or calories.
It only takes a couple of handfuls of raisins to get most of the daily allowance for vitamin C and A. As long as you don’t eat too many dried fruits on a daily basis they are good for your health. It is just like anything else. Eating all things in moderation keeps them as healthy additions to your diet. Besides, dried fruits are easy to transport anywhere for a simple snack.
