See these apples? These particular apples are now in a couple of quart sized mason jars waiting to be used for snacks and pies at a later day. I’m a complete novice right now, but I’m in the process of learning to dehydrate foods for my family.
Hopefully, I will also be learning how to use those foods later in the meals we love to eat. In the meantime, the apples turned out beautifully and we’ve all been enjoying eating them all by themselves.
I was seriously grateful for my apple corer/slicer this past week. It made quick work of prepping the apples for the dehydrator. Spraying them with lemon juice as I went along helped with preventing too much browning. When all of the apples were spread out on the trays, then they received a final spray of lemon juice before going into the dehydrator.
Once I’d done a few batches without the skin, I decided to skip peeling the apples and see how it turned out for us. As it turned out, I liked the apples with the peel the best of all. The texture was different, even the taste was slightly changed. Plus, the peel caused the apples to curl slightly, making them round and almost curled in a few instances. I can hardly wait to use them on salads.
Finished result: Approximately 24 apples fills a gallon sized ziploc with dehydrated apple slices. After processing over 100 apples, I am happy to have a great supply of snacks and apple slices set aside to use in pies and crumbles later this year.
My boys put the dried apples (without the skin) in their oatmeal the first morning after we made these and declared it awesome. If you are interested in learning more about dehydrating foods for your family, Dehydrate2Store has been an invaluable resource for me.
The Slow Roasted Italian says
They are a delicious snack indeed. Which apples do you prefer? I have tried Granny Smith, I really like the tart flavor with the intensified sweetness I got when dehydrating them.
Barefeet In The Kitchen says
YAY! You are out of hiding. I love it! We used a case of honeycrisp apples. Those are still my favorite. I was thinking that granny smiths might be awesome as a snack though. I'll have to sample some of yours!
DesperateHousewife says
This is amazing. I remember visiting Taiwan 12 years ago and i saw a store selling all kinds of dehydrated vegetables and fruits as chips. It was really good and they were all very crispy like chips. Are these crispy? It would be a great idea for me to encourage my kids to eat vegetables in the form of chips.
Barefeet In The Kitchen says
Desperate Housewife, I'm sorry I missed this post initially. The apples can be chewy or more crispy depending on how long you dehydrate them. I like them best when they are still a bit chewy.
Prairie Pixie says
Hi there,
I found you after you commented on my blog (I'm still learning…)
I'm just starting to experiment with dehydration. I bought a used Nesco for $10. I thought I'd try it first, then decide if more upscale equipment is in order.
Two questions:
What sort of dehydrator do you have?
I'm thinking of starting with apples. It's that season and they seem to be easy. Am I right on the easy part?
Barefeet In The Kitchen says
I have an Excalibur Dehydrator and I love it. However, if you are new to dehydrating and just experimenting with it all, your deal on the Nesco sounds perfect.
Apples are the perfect way to begin your dehydrating. They are very easy to dehydrate. Just slice thinly and spray with lemon juice to prevent browning. Then just turn on the machine.
They will be delicious as apple chips and they can also be re-hydrated very easily and used in different ways. Feel free to comment again or email me if you have any more questions. I'm not an expert at all, but I'm happy to help if possible. Good luck!
Erika says
Hello Mary,
I've slowly been introducing more food preservation into my life as a way to get out of the grocery store. I've canned for years, but I am always stumped on ways to use up what I make that isn't spaghetti sauce or cobbler. I notice you mentioned using dehydrated apples in a pie; how would that work? Do you re-hydrate your apples, or use them with fresh apples?
Mary says
Hi Erika, In order to rehydrate them for pies and baking, you would want to place the dried apples in a container and cover them with just enough boiling hot water to rehydrate them. (If you add too much water, the apple flavor will be left in the water.) Good luck with it!
Di says
Those definitely look yummy. I love dehydrated apples,I'll have to give it a try myself sometime.
1d4b49e4-398c-11e3-8275-000f20980440 says
Canning to store what do you do? I want to do apple chips but want the best storage
Mary says
I just place them in a jar and store them in a cool dark cupboard. The ones I made were fine a year or two later. Make sure they are dry enough to click when you drop them on the counter and you shouldn't have any problems.
Paul S says
my favorite apple for dehydrating use to be Jonagolds – have tried several other but eventually Honey Crisp which usually sells for double the price, are grabbing first place. They are like eating candy, but I have to admit more drying time of the slices is spent . So far this year i'm on my third bu of apples dried using a real simple Ronco five tray dehydrator.
Each year i dry other items such as most of my spices. Will be following this site to see if there is another item looking promising for drying – storage and use.