How to Make Dehydrated Fruit

Making your dehydrated fruit is easy. It only requires a few ingredients and a little patience as you wait for the fruit to dry out. A great healthy snack for the kids or to top off salads, add to yogurt, and other recipes.

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Making Dehydrated Fruit

Making dehydrated fruit is a great way to use up all of the perishable fruit in the house. We all know how quickly strawberries start to go bad. Dehydrating them, will make them last for months.

Dehydrating takes patience, but this fun snack is worth the wait. The taste is so much better than that of the store-bought alternative! Here’s what you should do if you are interested in making your dehydrated fruit. If you are looking for recipes with fruit then check out my Kiwi Milkshake Recipe, Shovel and Pail Watermelon Fruit Salad, and Cream Cheese Dip for Fresh Fruit.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

• Ripe fruit – examples include pineapple, apples, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, clementines, kiwi, mango, bananas…yum
• 12 cups of water in a large bowl
• One lemon

Equipment

Baking sheets lined with parchment paper

Instructions

The oven should be set to the lowest temperature (around 150 Fahrenheit)

• Rinse your fruit
• Core any fruit that contains seeds and slice it up – try to keep the slices uniform so they dry at an equal pace.

• Squeeze your lemon into the large bowl of water and stir in

• Place fruit slices in the water and let them soak for a few minutes.

• Drain. To speed up drying time, spread the fruit out on a paper towel and pat dry.

• Spread out onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper – pat dry

• Place the fruit into the oven
• Set a spoon in the door to keep the oven somewhat ajar – this helps the steam from the fruit escape
• Now, wait. It will take at least 4 hours. And may take up to 12. Mine dried out within 6 hours

• Keep checking in on it – Taste tests may be required.

Expert Tips

• Place the same type of fruit onto the same sheet. Separate it: apple slices on one tray, pineapples and oranges on another, and so on. These fruits may all stagger in drying time, and separating them to begin with will help you eliminate the dried fruit. Take out dehydrated fruit and keep going with the fruit that still needs time.
• Place the fruit (while it’s still warm) that you think is dry into a clear plastic bag. Seal it. Watch for condensation. If none appears, you’re good to go. If some does appear, set it back into the oven for some more drying time.
• The fruit should not be crunchy. You’re looking for soft and dry – you should be able to fold the apples without them breaking.
• You should let the fruit set out in the open air for 12 hours so steam can continue to evaporate.
• Then, seal it up

Variations

Add cinnamon sugar for a fall flare or a sweet-tasting dehydrated fruit

What to Serve with Dehydrated Fruit

What to Serve With

• Ice cream
• Hot chocolate
• Add to nuts to make a trail mix
• Top a homemade salad with dehydrated fruit
• Cheese

FAQs

Storing

Store dehydrated fruit in a ziptight bag for months.

Serving Size

Serving size will vary greatly depending on how much fruit you have to make. I cut up two apples and had a handful of berries, two clementines, some pineapple, and one banana. That would have easily served eight or more.

More Fruit Recipes You’ll Enjoy

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Printable Recipe

~Melissa – KidFriendlyThingsToDo.Com