How to Dry Apples

by admin October 22, 2013

written by admin October 22, 2013

How to Dry Apples

Each fall I love to buy at least one box of apples. Two years ago I bottled the apples in syrup and last year I made apple sauce. So, looking for another apple option I pulled out the dehydrator.

Drying apples is so easy (so easy, my 3 year old did a MAJOR portion of the work!) and they are a great ‘snack’ food to add to the pantry.

Here are some simple instructions for how to dry apples.

1- Wash the apples in cold water.

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2- Prepare an ice water bath with lemon juice (or citric acid). The ratio isn’t that important, I just poured about 1 cup of lemon juice in about 2 or 3 quarts of water.

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3- Using an apple slicer/corer Victorio VKP1010 Apple and Potato Peeler, Suction Base with the peeling blade disengaged (you WANT THE PEELING ON; no sense in cutting off the nutritious part) slice and core the apples.

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4- Place apple slices in lemon water immediately to prevent browning.

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5- Position apple slices on drying trays (I cut my apple circles in half so they would fit on the trays a bit better but they look great as complete circles too!).

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6- Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. You can use as much cinnamon and sugar as you would like but I have found that the perfect cinnamon/sugar ratio is about ¼ Cup Sugar to 1 TBSP cinnamon.

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7- Place trays in food dehydrator for 12 – 24 hours. Excalibur 3926TB Food Dehydrator, Black
Drying times will vary depending on your dryer. The instructions that came with my dehydrator said to dry apples for 11 hours but they weren’t even CLOSE to being done. I made 5 batches this year and dried them all for a complete 24 hours. Of course it is important to check the apples every few hours (at least past the 12 hour mark) to be sure they are not over drying.

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8- Remove dried apples from trays and store. I stored some of my apples in food saver bags and some in quart jars using the Jar sealer attachment.FoodSaver T03-0006-02P Regular-Mouth Jar Sealer
FoodSaver T03-0023-01 Wide-Mouth Jar Sealer
Apples will last a long time (2 years or more) if they are properly stored in a vacuum sealed environment but if you want them to last even longer place them in the freezer.

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* The biggest question to ask when drying apples is ‘how do I know when they are done?’ You want the finished product to be flexible but not too moist. There is nothing wrong with crispy apples if that is how you like them but the mistake made more often is not drying the apples long enough. Sometimes I suffer from apple testing overload and I have a hard time knowing if they are done. When this happens I will take 2 or 3 slices from the dehydrator and let them sit for 15 minutes. They seem to be easier to test when they are cool.

*Don’t have a dehydrator? Look at these other great options for drying apples.