At the end of summer, it is time to harvest apples. To save as many fruits as possible, various stewed fruit, jams and preserves are prepared from them. However, not every housewife agrees to stand by the stove for hours to bring them to the desired consistency. Therefore, many of them increasingly prefer a simpler and less costly procurement method. After reading today's post, you will learn how to make sun-dried apples at home.
Fruit Preparation Tips
It's no secret that in the composition of apples there is a lot of water. It accounts for about 90%. During the drying process, the excess liquid gradually evaporates, as a result of which only vitamins and valuable dietary fiber remain in the fruit. But in order to get perfect dried apples, you need to use exclusively high-quality raw materials.
For such purposes, it is advisable to use fruits grown in your own garden. Those who do not have such an opportunity should carefully choose the fruits lying on the market shelves. Do not buy unripe, rotted overripe specimens.
Selected fruits are washed well in cool running water. So that in the process of slicing you get approximately the same slices, apples must be sorted by size. After this, it is necessary to carefully consider the fruits and get rid of spoiled and rotten specimens. They can not be used, since they can provoke the fermentation process.
After sorting, you can begin to remove the core and chop the fruit. To make sun-dried apples, they are cut into thin slices, the thickness of which is 3-7 millimeters. In order for the fruits to retain their original color, it is recommended to soak them in salt water or dip them in boiling water for a couple of seconds.
Option one
To harvest the fruits of this recipe, you need to stock up on all the components in advance. At your disposal should be:
- A kilo of ripe apples.
- 380 milliliters of filtered water.
- 750-800 grams of granulated sugar.
First you should take care of the fruits. To prepare tasty and healthy sun-dried apples, they are washed, peeled, freed from the core and cut into large pieces. Prepared fruits are put in a deep bowl, covered with 200 grams of sugar and left for sixteen hours at room temperature.
After this time, juice is drained from them and the same amount of sweet component is added again. After another sixteen hours, the juice is drained from them and combined with hot syrup made from water and the remnants of granulated sugar. All this is covered and left for ten minutes. After this, the syrup is drained, and the fruit slices are transferred to a baking sheet and sent for half an hour to the oven, heated to 85 degrees. Then the temperature is reduced to 70 0 C and the fruits are kept twice for 40 minutes. After that, they are left for five hours at 30 degrees. At the final stage, the almost finished product is left for three days at room temperature.
Dried apples with cinnamon
To prepare this fragrant gourmet delicacy, you need to stock up on all the ingredients in advance. In this case, your pantry must have:
- A kilo of ripe apples.
- A tablespoon of cinnamon.
- 300 grams of sugar.
- A teaspoon of citric acid.
For the preparation of sun-dried apples, it is advisable to use sweet or sour-sweet varieties. Pre-washed, peeled and core-free fruits are cut into thin slices, laid tightly on a baking sheet and sprinkled with citric acid, cinnamon and sugar.
All this is sent to the oven, heated to two hundred degrees, and kept in it for 25 minutes. After this time, the baking sheet is removed from the oven, and its contents are carefully transferred to parchment paper, sprinkled with a small amount of sugar, and left for three days. Ready fruits are transferred to a dry clean container and stored at room temperature.
Sun-dried apples in an electric dryer
Using this appliance allows you to quickly and efficiently harvest fruits for the winter. Moreover, this will happen almost without your intervention. Before placing apples in the appliance, they are washed, freed from the core and cut into slices not too thick. The fruits prepared in this way are carefully laid out in one layer on the pallet of the electric dryer and sent to the device.
It is important to ensure that the temperature does not exceed 55 degrees. Apples are left to dry for seven hours. After that, the dryer is disconnected from the network and the readiness of the fruits is checked. If everything is in order, then they are placed in pre-prepared containers and sent for further storage.
How to store the finished product?
So that your dried apples do not deteriorate prematurely, they must be placed in a container that passes air well. For these purposes, cardboard boxes or cloth bags can be used. Stagnation of air must not be allowed in the container with the finished fruit.
It is also undesirable to put boxes with dried apples in a room with a high level of humidity. This can cause fungus and other pests. The right conditions allow you to save the finished product for several months.