Fresh Dried Apple Slices

It's easy to make your own dried fruit at home, my favourite is dried Apple slices.

I'm going to walk you through my process for making dried Apple slices at home

• Apples - about 6 apples fit on a tray.
• Food dryer
• A large kitchen knife
• Breadboard
• (Optional) - A small paring knife
• (Optional) - Peeler

I like to grab a few different varieties of apples. Some are sweet, some are crunchy and some are a little more sour. When you've dried your apples, the variety makes your bag of mixed apple slices nicer to pick through, since you get a mix of flavours and not just one consistent flavour and texture.

You should always wash fruit before eating it, so wash the Apples and put them in any container for the next step.

Put your washed apples, food dehydrator, bread board, knives, peeler (optional) on a work surface where you can work safely.

If you want to you can peel your Apples before moving onto the next step. Personally I like to leave the apple skin on the apples, but you might want to peel them if you're giving these to young kids (picky eaters) or anyone who needs softer foods (elderly or similar)

Working one apple at a time, but the Apple in half, then half again, and again.

If you want, you can core the Apples as you work through them. This will create a lot of waste, but not everyone likes the crunch of the apple core, or eating the occasional seed.

The easiest way to core the apples, is to cut them in half, then half again. Then using the paring knife, and holding the apple in your hand (Use care that you do not cut yourself) cut from the bottom of the apple towards the core. When the blade touches the core, twist the knife away from yourself and the apple core should split away from the rest of the apple. You can look at the picture to see what these apple cores looks like when done this way.

When you've finished cutting an apple, put the slices into the tray of the dehydrator, if you didn't peel the apples, put them with the skin down on the tray. This makes the Apples less likely to stick to the tray as they dry.

If you peeled your Apples, don't worry they will be fine :)

You may notice the apples seem a little tall for the tray, don't worry as they dry they will shrink, and all the trays will fit together. With all the apple slices pointing up, the weight of the next tray won't do any damage to the apple slices, so it's all going to be fine 👍

Keep cutting apples and filling up each tray one by one.

When you've run out of Apples, or you have run out of trays for the fruit, put the lid of the dehydrator on and make sure all of the trays are lined up.

If your machine does not have a temperature control, don't worry the slices will still dry, they will just take a little longer.

If you have the instruction manual for your machine, you should have a read and use the recommended settings for your machine.

If you don't have the manual for your machine, (like me) then I like to dry my apples on maximum heat. I feel like this makes the surface of the apples a little less smooth, and gives them a nicer texture. The higher heat also speeds up the drying process and kills the enzymes in the fruit that would otherwise contribute to the flesh turning brown (oxidation).

My Apple slices took about 18 hours to dry enough that I was happy with them.

How to tell if your Apple slices are ready:

• The slices are dry to the touch.
• They are flexible, but if you bend them too far they will tear (not snap, tear)
• Eat one and see if you like the way they feel, it's nice to eat one every few hours to see how they are progressing.

That's all! Dry them till you think they are good!

NOTES:

• If they are too wet, they will spoil quickly, the Apple slices should at least be dry enough to tear and not snap.

Apple slices should be OK to store in the pantry, but you don't want to store them for more than 3 months. You can, but we made these at home and didn't give them any extra treatments to avoid bacterial growth. Enjoy the apple slices, but if you see any growth on them, I would throw them away.

Better, you can store the Apple slices in the fridge in a zip-lock bag. This way they should store for several months without spoiling. If you portion them out into multiple snack bags, they are great as a quick snack from the fridge.