How To Dry Apples Without Preservatives-using either a dehydrator or an oven that can go to a low temperature, making your own dried fruit is easy, affordable, and MUCH healthier than buying in the store.
Ingredients
As many apples as you feel like drying (or for me, as many as I can fit on my 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator-love it! Usually about 12 pounds at a time)
1 cup of orange juice*
3 cups water*
*If doing a lot of apples, I double the liquid. I also usually do this on the same day I'm making apple sauce. The extra water/juice mixture is then used in my apple sauce as my liquid.
Instructions
Place water and oj in a large bowl.
Peel, core and slice apples. We use an apple peeler. You should get one if you make anything with apples, your life will be so much easier! (apple pie, cobbler, apple pancake, garden fresh foodie apple sauce, cinnamon apples for breakfast-you get the picture)
Dunk apples into water/juice mixture for about 2 minutes, or until you're done peeling and cutting (keeping them in the juice helps prevent browning)
Remove and place onto dry sheets.
Dry at 118 degrees for about 6-8 hours. Check apples at 5 hours. Some will dry faster than others. Remove the ones that are done, and rotate trays. Dry until texture is no longer sticky, and apples are dry but not crunchy. They should bend. If using an oven, put your temperature down as low as the oven can go, preferably no higher than 140 degrees. Check after 2 hours (see note above*)
If you are looking for a chip texture, dry for longer. We stop at the just no longer sticky stage. See our youtube video on how to dry apples.
Place into a large container and let sit for about 2 weeks, shaking every other day or so. This allows the apples to redistribute any remaining moisture. Vacuum seal for long term storage.
If you want them in recipes, you can pour hot water over them and let them rehydrate for 5 minutes. This will make them more plump (this is a great thing for all dried fruits and veggies).
Recipe by Garden Fresh Foodie at https://gardenfreshfoodie.com/healthy-snacks/how-to-dry-apples-without-preservatives/