Monday, 01 March 2010
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Recipe: Dried Fruit
In the colder months, I don't have much access to quality fruit so I find myself buying dried fruit. Store-bought dried fruit gets expensive and tends to have additives in it, so I've decided to make my own.
Since the only fruit I can find at the farmer's market these days is apple, I use them but feel free to substitute grapes, plums, apricots, berries or basically any type of fruit you'd like.
What You'll Need:
Parchment Paper
Baking Sheet
Fruit (the amount and type of fruit is up to you)
Steps to Making Dried Fruits:
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees
- Cut fruit into thin slices. If you are making raisins or dried cherries, you can leave them whole.
- Place on parchment paper but make sure they are not touching each other.
- Bake for 8 to 16 hours, depending upon the type of fruit.
- Seal up and snack when desired!
Dried fruit can be stored up to a year without refrigeration so this summer I am stocking up on tons of fruit so I have something to snack on during the colder months!
Do you make your own dried fruit? What is your process?
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Comments (11)
Oh, this looks cool. Where I buy it, dried fruit is pretty expensive and you don't get a whole lot of it. I've never tried making it myself. And this way seems much easier than the one from Alton Brown (not to mention, I don't have the things you need to make them that way).
I'll definitely try this :3
Oh I love dried fruit, I will definitely try to make this one of these days :]
I wanna try mangos!!
What a great idea!
8 to 16 hours is a HUGE time difference though! Please give an example of a fruit that would need 16 hours to dry.
I've made my own dried fruit before; but, I used a dehydrator instead of the oven.
Yummy!
Yummy. I'd love to try and make my own dried fruit.
Very nice. I should try them.
@AmbitiousDeliciousness - Well, when I dry out my apples, it takes about 10 hours. I believe the juicier the fruit, the longer you should bake them. I think it really depends upon the oven too. I live in campus housing, so my oven is not exactly quality. It might take me less time if I had a more better oven.
Just aim for about 10 hours and keep your eye on the fruit to make sure they don't get too brittle or burn.
@GinaG@xanga - wow. it sounds like I'd better get to this before it gets hot outside!! :) thanks for the clarification!!!
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Okay I hate to be the one to point this out, but running your oven at 200 for 8 to 16 hours is going to add a nice amount to your energy bill and really defeat the whole purpose. The Alton Brown method produces great results, is cheap to build and will save you tons of money in the long run. Here's how it works:
I got all of the parts for this at walmart for under $30.
1) 20" Holmes Box Fan (On the front it says costs less than 2 cents/hour to operate.) Price $14.88
2) Stackable Cooling Racks 3pc Box Price $9.99 ( Finding all natural Air Filters is hard and expensive. Fiberglass is NOT Cool, so I found a work-around.
The racks have legs on them, so take a flathead screw driver and pry the opening for the legs a little wider. They slide off easily after you open the hook a little. It's easier if you open the legs up and then hold the rack down firmly on the counter before you twist open the legs with the flathead screwdriver.
Best part about using these racks is that they are already non-stick and make clean up really simple.
3. Bungee Cords. You could buy 2 12" bungees or do what I did and buy a pack of 20 4" bungees. I just link them together and the small hooks make them easy to attach to the fan slots. Price $5.48
How To:
Pry the legs off of the racks using a flathead screwdriver and the directions above.
Lay fan down flat with it in the "blowing up" direction.
Place first rack on top of fan.
Slice your fruit, meat, vegetable into thin slices and lay on top of first rack.
Put another rack on top and fill and then cover with last rack.
Use the bungee cords by clipping them to the back side of the fan and passing them all the way around to hold the racks down.
Run fan on high for 8 to 12 hours check dryness and continue if necesary.
This method will cost you about 16 to 32 cents to operate as opposed to $4 to $7 dollars using your oven.