Dried Fruit?

Question

Ho do you make your own dried fruit, i love dried banana chips and dried apricots, but they can be quite pricey and i'm never too sure how natural they are (as in the glazing and process it goes through) so any ideas?

Answer 1

They are not "They are cooked, coated, and frozen." the fruits have natural sugars in them and when they are dried those sugars are concentrated as the water leaves the fruit. There are any number of ways to dry fruit at home and any number of gadgets sold to do it. All you need is your home oven and a good knife. You basically slice the fruits thinly and evenly. Place it on a a screen or paper or cookie sheet and place it in an oven that is only about 100 degrees or a little more. Once it is leather hard remove and refrigerate it. Bananas will get quite hard. Look up drying fruit on the web. There are many ways to get similar results.

Answer 2

You need a food dehyrator unit ( not all that expensive, check Ebay)

To prepare fruit wash, in mild solution of sodium metabisulphate
for a few hrs, then drain and rinse and drain again. Pat dry with paper towel to speed up drying

Bananas ( remove skin)
Apricots and peaches cut into halves
apples core and cut into rings
Tomatoes core and slice into rings

Place the fruit on the trays and set the machine going. When the fruit is almost dry ( dont overdo it otherwise it becomes like wood chips) remove and place in plastic storage bins.

Most machines come with instructions

With the banana chips you can also soak them in a sugar solution after rinsing off the metabisulphate

You can sun dry fruit but it takes ages, has to be covered each night to prevent erabsorption of moisture. Can take up to a week!
The machine takes 16 hrs on average

Answer 3

Dried fruit recipes/methods


The following methods have proved successful for banannas

Banana
The fruit should be ripe and sweet, but not soft and brown. Cut into thin slices (5-7mm thick) and add sulphur or, sulphite by dipping in a 2000ppm SO2 solution for 1 minute. Dry the fruit in a single layer at 60-75degC until hard and brittle (equal to a moisture content of 12%). Avoid overheating to prevent the banana from darkening.
YUMMY

Answer 4

If you lived like a hermit in a tent and could only make it to the store once a year, walking 30 miles through the woods every September, you wouldn't be complaining so much, city girl. They're conveniently light and compact. I love dried Apricots. But you can shove those raisins where the sun don't shine, as far as I'm concerned.

Answer 5

You need to get a food dehydrator, they aren't that expensive ( for the 5 tray ones, about $100). I am making apple chips and banana chips in mine right now. The glazes are different things depending on the fruit, or what recipe you used. When you get the dehydrator, it will have enough directions in it for you to start being creative on your own once you know the basics. Good luck!

Answer 6

All they do is slice the fruit, treat it with sulphur to preserve the colour, then glaze it with syrup which is made from sugar and water. Cherries used in cakes may be coloured, they usually use cochineal which is a ground up beetle and therefore natural. Vegetarians object to it.
Its the sulphur in dried fruit that people object to, it can trigger an asthma attack in sensitive people. But you can get unsulphured varieties, try a wholefood shop.
You can buy vegetable driers, and you can do fruit in them; you also get a recipie booklet with them. Just do small amounts at a time and eat it up!

Don't be afraid of food; just learn to read the labels and learn what it all means.

Answer 7

They have those dehydration machines out there where you layer the fruit and then it dries it out-I have had apricots that way-they are really good.I love Banana chips too.They are online or at certain stores.

Answer 8

naturally you leave it exposed to air for how many days....

well

Answer 9

They are cooked, coated, and frozen.