Monday, September 15, 2008

Drying Fruit

I figured for the first post I would start with what it occupying my week in the kitchen - drying peaches. Drying fruit is actually very easy. You can purchase a fruit dryer for about $40 dollars at Walmart and then you are on your way. To keep the color of your fruit you need to soak it in asorbic acid so I just make some frozen lemonade (lemon juice contains the ascorbic acid) and then as I peel, pit, and slice my fruit I dump it in the lemonade and let it sit until I have enough peaches sliced and prepared to place on the racks of my dryer. Another tip that makes this easier is to use an egg slicer to slice your fruit - I know it works well with peaches and in a couple weeks I will test it out on apples. Apples may be to solid to do very well but we shall see.

2 comments:

Donette said...

Do you follow the rest of the instructions that comes with the fruit dryer as far as how long to dry it? This is for those of us who haven't done it, and can't just look at it and think "yep, it's done".

Wendy said...

Yes and no. I once upon a time read the directions which are basically turn on your dryer and leave on until done. I find that I have to rotate my racks to maintain even heat and even then they do not all get done at the same time so I just go through the racks and pull off the ones that are dry. You can tell if they are done when you touch them and you don't feel any moisture. Sometimes they may be a little sticky and still be done because when they cool down they aren't as sticky.