Delicious Dried Apples

dried apples

Dried apples are one of the most useful (and easy) of winter preserves. Its the way to go for apples that are damaged in anyway and wont store well – bird pecks/ bruises/ black spot/ no stalks. Use them up while they’re still good. Our home dried apples are a family favourite. The ones you see here are Captain Kidd’s – they’re something special.

Here’s how

There’s no need to peel apples for drying, but its good to wipe off any bird do’s. Core the apples or not – up to you.

Make a bowl of lemony water up – this stops the apples from browning. 1 litre water + 3 tablespoon of either lemon juice or vinegar.

If you have a mandoline, set it up on top of the lemony water and slice the apples right into it. If not, slice as thinly as you can (about 5mm) and get the apples under water before they brown.

Shake off excess water and lay slices side by side on the trays of the drier. They’ll shrink as they dry so no need to leave big gaps.

Turn the dehydrator off after 6 – 8 hours and once the fruit’s cooled, check for doneness. I often do a second little burst. They can seem dry initially but rehydrate a little as they cool.

Store in sterilised glass jars. Fruit dried this way will easily last 12 months.

Comments

  1. Graeme Siddle says

    Have you posted the right message for April 2022?

    • Ah no – we mucked our welcome message up this month Graeme! Such alot of checks and balances and work goes into our newsletter and every now and then we make a mistake. Just gotta let it go and hope May will be on task 🙂

  2. Ruth Harrison says

    Hi Kath, I love this idea – do you have any thoughts/tips on what sort of dehydrator to buy?
    Thanks
    Ruth

  3. Ruth Harrison says

    Thats really helpful, thanks so much Kath

  4. Linda Lloyd says

    Can I dry Apples in my Oven? If so what temp and for how long? I unfortunately do not have a dehydrator. Many thanks

    • Yes you can Linda – turn your oven to its lowest setting and prep apples the same as per the dehydrator. You’ll save yourself turning the apples if you lay them on a cake cooling rack. Leave the oven door ajar and off you go. Test after the first hour – how long really depends on your oven – but it likely takes 2 to 3 hours. Its a trial and error thing Linda. If you dont have enough racks for all your apples just turn them over in about an hour.