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Preparation
1. Wash fruits and remove any blemishes.
2. Dry off fruits and equally slice in pieces of 5 mm in order to achieve the best
drying efficiency.
3. Remove stones from stone fruits like plums, cherries, peaches etc before
drying.
4. Pretreat fruits if desired. Pretreatment makes fruits look better and increase
the shelf life. Fruits taste better and dry faster.
5. Use pineapple or lemon juice to prevent browning. Soak fruits for 2 – 3 min. in
the juice before drying.
6. Sprinkle fruits with brown sugar, cinnamon or coconut or with honey to give an
interesting flavour.
7. Blanche fruits with natural protective wax coating e.g. figs, grapes and prunes
before drying. Blanching speeds up drying process. Immerse fruits in boiling
water for 1 - 2 minutes and plunge into ice cold water. Slice blanched fruits in
thin slices.
Drying Fruits
1. Evenly spread fruits on the racks. Do not put one piece on top of another.
2. Only use up to 90% of the rack's capacity to allow air to circulate freely.
3. To use the dehydrator efficiently, remove not-needed racks. If you notice
uneven drying, switch off the dehydrator and move the bottom rack up and the
top rack down. Dry for 8 – 10 hours.
Storing
1. Cool down fruits before storing as condensation in the container causes
mildew.
2. Always make a dryness test. Switch off the dehydrator before taking test
pieces. Drying fruit will be soft and pliable when properly dried.
3. Check the content for moisture during the first week after drying. If moisture
appears, dry it again.
4. Containers should be dry, glass jars with metal screw lids are ideal containers.
Store fruits in a cool and dry area and as dark as possible. The ideal tempera-
ture for storing dehydrated food is 5 – 20 °C.
Drying Fruits
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