How to Dry Fruit With a Dehydrator

Use your dried fruit to make trail mix.

Dried fruit is a delicious and nutritious snack, and is a good complement to other dishes. Use it to top ice cream or cereal, or add it to muffins or cakes. Dried fruit tastes sweeter than fresh fruit because the water has been taken out of it, which makes the flavor of the fruit concentrated. Using a dehydrator is perhaps the most convenient method of drying fruit.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Dehydrator
• Assortment of fruit
• Lemon juice or sulfite

1. Prepare your fruit by washing and coring it. Coring is not absolutely necessary, some fruits can be left whole while other fruits should be cut in half or sliced before they are dried. When slicing the fruit, try to make thin, uniform slices. This will ensure that all of the slices dry at the same time. While you may choose not to peel your fruit, be aware that unpeeled fruit will take longer to dry than peeled fruit.

2. Pre-treat your fruit with lemon juice or sulfite to keep it from darkening over time.

3. Place the fruit in a single layer on the individual drying trays. Make sure that your pieces of fruit do not overlap each other or even touch. This can cause spots of the fruit to not dry completely.

4. Dry your fruit for the amount of time indicated by the dehydrator’s manufacturer. Different types of fruit will take different times to dry. The fruit should retain about 20 percent of its moisture after it has been dried.

Tips & Warnings

• Sulfite can cause a reaction in people with asthma. If you or someone in your family has asthma and you want to pre-treat your fruit, choose another method.

References

• Colorado State University Extension: Drying Fruits