How to dry apples

Dried apples have a very long and trouble-free stored, they take up very little space compared to other methods of harvesting. Dried fruits useful. When drying the apples retained almost all the nutrients and sugar, because the fruits are not exposed to high temperatures.

Fourth, the drying of apples requires a minimum of labor, if the use of modern tools Housewives.

The selection of varieties

Choose large or medium-sized apples with thin skins and small seed box. This choice gives a small amount of waste and larger quantities of raw materials.

Choosing apples for drying, primarily pay attention to autumn varieties, sweet-sour taste. Not only taste, but also a large number of dry substances distinguishes these apples from the others. Sweet apples very often, after drying not have a pronounced flavor that many people may not like.

The best varieties for drying is recognized as Antonovka, Pepin, AltaVista. I tried to dry Sinap Orlovsky, but was left disappointed taste. Probably because this variety is winter, and for drying it is necessary to take the ground of good quality, if it really wants to dry winter varieties.

In this case, my summer class is well-tested drying. And taste what you have, and the quality of raw materials. Maybe because of the sour taste of some varieties.

But not only in this lies the secret of my dried apples! The main thing — correctly to prepare the apples.





How to prepare apples for drying?

Process the apples not all at once, but in portions. Half bucket is about serving. This is to ensure that they do not have time to oxidize and darken. Better yet, use the saline solution to stop the oxidation and preserve the nice bright color of Apple slices (about saline below).

Before drying apples should be washed and wiped off, the excess moisture will lengthen the drying process.

The next step is removing the core. You can do it with a special device in the form of a tube with sharp edges, and can the old fashioned way, by cutting into quarters and cut out the inedible parts with a knife. If you prepare exclusively dried fruit compote, you can not cut serdtsevinka.

Clean peel — an unpardonable blasphemy against nutrients, but it is only for their apples. If it is bought in the supermarket, it might make sense to clean the fruit.

Next, cut the apples with a knife or, for advanced, and using household slicers. The thickness of the sliced pieces should be no more than 5 mm.

Treatment saline. Sliced apples for 4 minutes, aged in a solution of 1% salt (100 g of salt per bucket of water). Here is a natural clarifier will allow your dried apples look brighter and nicer. And will also protect from insects and as a preservative will increase the shelf life of the slices.

The treatment with a solution of sulphurous acid. Before drying it is possible to sustain the apples for 3 minutes in a 0.2% aqueous solution of sulphurous acid( 1 liter of water 1 g of acid). This will preserve color during storage and will repel pests, ready to eat the fruits of your labors. Use the basket for blanching. Fans ready to chew the dry raw material recommend scald "chips" with boiling water before use.

Now you can proceed directly to drying of apples chosen method.

Methods of drying

1. Drying in the open air

Drying apples in the sun — the most ancient, but no longer the most convenient methods of preserving dried fruit. It is suitable for hot regions with lots of Sunny days. Autumn to dry apples in the open air is unlikely to succeed, air should be hot, so the apples do not rot, and quickly podelilis. Therefore, it is usually dry summer apples. The advantage of the method is almost unlimited space for drying, you can dry all. Disadvantages of mass.

Apples cut into thin slices or slices and spread on a wide baking pan or grid in a single layer. Every day they need to turn.

Another option is to string the apples on a string or stick and hang. For protection from flies and other insects (no one likes wormy dried fruits) you need to cover the apples fine gauze, folded 1-2 times (which, incidentally, is not a guarantee). It is unacceptable that the fruit got rain. If all conditions are met, the apples are dried in the hot sun for 3-4 days. If to dry in shade, you will need a little more time to 7-8 days.

2. Drying in the oven, on the stove, in the oven

In the oven, harvest the apples a lot of Housewives. Apples need to be spread out evenly in 1 row on a baking dish or better on the grid. Turn on the oven on low heat or exhibited a temperature of about 75 °C, the door slightly on the size of the palm of your hand. At the end of drying it is possible to lower the temperature to 50-55 °C. Check and, if necessary, stir the apples every few hours. After about 7 hours the slices dry. At the end of cooking, the apples should be a pale, in any case, not brown and not burnt.

Some dried apples over a gas stove, and strung the slices on a string, arranging them on a high rack or directly on baking sheet — on request. Such drying is quite fast, takes 2 hours, but requires constant attention and expertise: not yet empirically determine the desired mode of burners, the height of the drying, the cooking time, you can ruin a lot of fruits and nerves.

3. Drying in the drier

Having tried the methods described above, this year I found the best: dehydrators. With such a simple device in a small period of time dry the apples yourself not only juice, but also neighbors and friends.

This is the simplest method of drying apples. Cut into slices not thicker than 5 mm, uniformly put in the dehydrators, set the required temperature, and in a few hours you will receive the finished product! The apples won't burn, they will not eat insects, they dry out quickly and correctly.





How to determine apples ready or not?

So if the skins have darkened the pulp, no stickiness, but they are soft and elastic, so they are ready. You can press your finger on a piece. If not squashed from severe depression — ready!

Do not be afraid of different colors ready-made raw materials. Color depends on what kind you have a variety of summer, winter or autumn. The flesh is darker the winter, the summer is lighter and dried faster summer than the winter. The color also depends on the method of drying and pre-treatment and can vary from greenish-cream to dark brown. Yet it must be borne in mind that the brown dried fruits are destroyed by vitamins, but in more bright and elastic the vitamins are retained, dried fruit correctly.

How to store dried apples?

Finally we have achieved as much as I could. But how to save our work?

After drying, collect the separate pieces that have to lie down and process to continue, the rest I pour into a pillow case from the pillow to lay across a friendly company and acquired the same level of humidity. So they lie a few weeks and then be replaced by cloth bags.

You can also use paper or cardboard boxes, but you should not store apples in plastic bags or plastic containers, they can "choke" and become moldy.

Source: www.7dach.ru