How to make dried apricots at home? The recipe for the preparation of such dried fruit will be described in detail below.
General information
Before presenting a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home, it should be said what kind of product it is, what properties it has.
Dried apricots, apricot and kaisa - very many people believe that these words are synonyms. But this is not so. These products have only one thing in common - the feedstock in the form of apricot.
Uryuk is called dried fruit with a stone, dried apricots are dried in a cut form, and the kaisa is a whole fruit from which the stone was removed.
A step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home should be known to all housewives. Indeed, when dried, apricot retains practically all the beneficial properties. That is why such a product is an invaluable source of trace elements and vitamins.
Today, the production of dried apricots is common in Turkey and Tajikistan. However, the homeland of the apricot is China. It was in the Middle Kingdom that apricot trees were cultivated in order to obtain delicious and fragrant fruits.
Dried apricots at home: a recipe with a photo of dried fruit
There are many ways to dry apricots at home. Someone does this using the oven, someone uses a dehydrator, and someone prefers to carry out this process in the sun. In any case, no matter which method you choose, such an apricot harvest will surely turn out to be tasty and healthy, especially in the winter.
So how to make dried apricots? The recipe for dried fruit requires the use of the following set of ingredients:
- fresh apricots - about 3 kg;
- cold drinking water - 4 cups;
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice - 1 cup.
Product selection
Before implementing the recipe for making dried apricots at home, apricots should be selected correctly. Fruits must be ripe. However, when buying them, make sure that they are not too soft or, conversely, hard.
Product processing
To prepare homemade dried apricots, all apricots must be cleaned of the existing stalks, and then put in a colander and washed alternately in hot water. Next, the product should be dried with paper towels and make a circular incision. Turning the halves of the fruit in different directions, they are separated and the drupe is taken out. After this, the apricots are laid out in a deep bowl and filled with water, which is mixed in advance with freshly squeezed lemon juice. If you are too lazy to go to the store for such an acidic fruit, then you can use ordinary citric acid instead.
In this form, the fresh product is kept for about half an hour, and then again placed on paper or wafer towels. After a few minutes, you can begin to dry the apricots.
Dry fruit in a dehydrator
The recipe for dried apricots at home is very often implemented through a device such as a dehydrator. Halves of apricots are laid out on the device grid with slices down. In this form, the product is left at 55-60 degrees for 20-40 minutes. The degree of drying of apricots depends on your desire. If you like more meaty products, then you should not keep them in the dehydrator for too long. If you want to get wrinkled and dry dried apricots, then the cooking time should be more than 30-40 minutes.
How and where to store?
Now you know how to cook dried apricots at home. The recipe with a photo of this dried fruit was presented above. However, this information is not enough to keep dried apricots in proper form for a long time. Therefore, all housewives who love to harvest dried fruits for the winter on their own should definitely know how to store it.
Experienced chefs say that such a product is best stored in a fabric bag that is placed in a dry and dark room. Although some housewives prefer to put the finished dried apricots in jars or a plastic bag. In this case, the products should be stored in a refrigerator. If you do this at room temperature, then, most likely, the dried fruits will mold and become unusable.
Oven drying process
Above, we told you about how dried apricots are dried in a dehydrator. The recipe for such a dried fruit can be implemented in the oven. After all, not all hostesses have the mentioned device. To do this, you must carry out all the same actions that were described above. In other words, apricots are carefully processed, washed, halved, steeped in lemon water and dried on a towel.
After the described actions, the halves of the fruit are laid out on a baking sheet, which is pre-covered with parchment paper. In this case, the apricot slice should be on top.
In this position, the products are sent to the oven, where they are kept for 4-5 hours. In this case, the temperature regime of 100-130 degrees must be observed. Apricots should dry, become wrinkled and acquire a more saturated color.
We dry products in the sun
Experienced culinary specialists claim that apricots are able to preserve the maximum of useful substances in themselves, if they are not subjected to heat treatment, but dried in the hot sun. But not everyone has such an opportunity. Indeed, in urban conditions it is quite difficult to make tasty and healthy dried apricots using sunlight. If you live in an ecologically clean region, where hot weather prevails in the summer, then this method is quite possible to implement. To do this, you will need to process the apricots, peel them, wash, soak in lemon water and dry. Then halves of the fruit must be laid out on a large and even surface (for example, on a baking sheet, chopping board, etc.), which is pre-covered with food or plain paper. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that the slices of the apricots are looking up.
After all the fruits are laid out properly, they are placed in the sun. In this case, it is advisable to trace that the apricots were in a draft or in a well-ventilated place.
If you are afraid that your dried apricots will be covered with dust or will be attacked by insects, then it should be covered with gauze or covered with some kind of mesh box, which transmits sunlight and air well, but does not allow dirt and flies to get inside.
To summarize
Having presented a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home, you just have to make a choice. Using the described methods of drying apricots, you will definitely get a tasty and healthy product that can be used for completely different purposes. Someone makes various desserts, pies and pies from dried apricots, someone cooks compotes from it, and someone even uses it for nothing, instead of sweets.