A few weeks ago my roommate, Krissy, told me about an industrial size food dehydrator that a friend of hers had. Soon thereafter she came home with a large bowl of dehydrated bananas. She was gracious enough to allow me to try a few of them. They were so delicious! I had a hard time resisting the urg to eat all of them. I was grateful when she put them in the freezer - out of sight, out of mind.
Being on a food storage and preparedness kick recently I decided that dehydrated food would be something that I would like to have in my food storage. So I put a dehydrator on my Christmas list and left it at that. But Krissy kept bringing home more dehydrated fruits and then bought 90 lbs. of peaches to dehydrate. Our conversations often revolved around the different things one could do with a food dehydrator. I couldn't resist my desire to start dehydrating my own fruits, nor the jealousy I had each time Krissy brought home more dehydrated fruits any longer. So after doing a little bit of research on the different types and qualities of dehydrators, I made my selection and purchased my own Excalibur 2400 4-tray Food Dehydrator.
After demonstrating much patience for the few days it took my dehydrator to arrive, I didn't waste any time to break it in when it came. I cut up all the fresh fruit that I had - bananas, strawberries, and pineapple and began the dehydration process. I again had to demonstrate a lot of patience as I waited for my fruit to dehydrate. It felt like it took forever for those little pieces to fully dehydrate, but the wait was well worth it! The results were amazing!
One concern that I had about dehydrating fruit was the loss of flavor that might occur through this process. I was surprised and very happy to discover that the fruit still burst with flavor!
Flipping through the little pamphlet that came with the dehydrator I came across a recipe to make fruit leather. It was so simple that I had to read it several times to make sure I was understanding it correctly. All you have to do is puree the desired fruit you want to make into fruit leather and then spread it out on a sheet, slip it into the dehydrator and in 5 or so hours - waalaa - you have fruit leather! No added sugar or anything. Pure fruit!
Dehydrated bananas (with cinnamon sprinkled on top),strawberries, pineapple, and the fruit leather.
Gathering up what fruit I had left over - peaches, bananas, strawberries, and raspberries - I pureed it all together and put it in the dehydrator shortly before leaving for my Fire Fighting class last night. Only having to wait an hour or so after arriving home from class my fruit leather was done! I ripped off a good chunk and let my taste buds have a party! Nothing less than delicious!
My first batch of dehydrated fruit and the fruit leather was a success! It has been a fun learning experience and I've only touched the tip of the iceberg. I am excited to keep trying and making new and more things! The possibilities are endless!
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