Apples are a delicious fruit that I have used a lot in cooking. One thing I haven’t done, until now that is, is to dehydrate apples. Learn how to dehydrate apples which make lovely apple ring snacks and delicious apple chips.

Dehydrating Apples

Apples that have been dehydrated are a lovely, and convenient snack that can be snacked on as they are or added to salads or muffins. But before you dehydrate, you must clean them thoroughly.

Let them dry thoroughly after this to reduce the time needed for dehydrating. Another thing to remember is, the bigger the pieces, the longer they will take to dehydrate.

What Apples Dehydrate the Best?

With so many different varieties of apples that are grown, you may find it hard to narrow down the best apples to use for dehydrating. While pretty much all apples can be dehydrated, the flavours of the apples can change and intensify after drying them.

The more tart apples, hold their shape well, and make great snacks, while sweeter flavoured apples are usually more juicy and tend to shrink when they dry. Their sweet flavour makes them perfect for using with oatmeal, yoghurt and, of course, snacking.

Some great apple varieties to use are: Jonathan, Granny Smith, Macintosh, Gala, Red Delicious, Cosmic Crisp (used here), Pippin, Rome Beauty, McIntosh Red, and Baldwin.

Peel or Not?

This is up to your individual taste and the way that you will be using your dried apples.

Apples can be dried with their peel or without. Keeping the peel on adds a lovely colour, fibre and a good texture.

If you are going to rehydrate the dehydrated apples to use in baking, you may prefer to remove the peel before drying.

Pre-Treating Apples

As you are probably aware, apples tend to brown rather quickly when their flesh meets the air. By pre-treating the apple slices before dehydrating, the browning process is slowed.

To pre-treat the apple slices, you can dip them in citric acid water or lemon water.

Citric Acid Water – Combine ½ teaspoon of powdered citric acid with 2 cups of water, stirring until the citric acid has dissolved. Soak the apple slices for up to 10 minutes, rinse with clean water and pat dry.
Lemon Water – Combine ⅓ cup of lemon juice with 1 cup of water. Stir to mix and soak the apple slices for up to 10 minutes. Remove and place on your dehydrator drying racks.

Conditioning Dried Apples

Once these apples have been full dehydrated, they will need to be conditioned to be kept without going off. Fill a jar about two-thirds full and seal the lid. Over the next week or so, shake the jar a couple of times a day. If you start to see mould, they will need to be thrown out. If you see moisture, they are not dried enough, and need to be placed back into the dehydrator. Once they have been conditioned, the jars can be fulled completely and stored in a cool, dark place. If they do start to have a strong smell or you can see moisture in the jars, it is time to dehydrate another batch of apples.

Storing Dehydrated Apples

Store dried apples in sealed jars, or ziploc bags (if eating soon), or in mylar sealable bags for long term storage. Dried apple slices can also be vacuum sealed for longer storage.

How Long Do Dehydrated Apples Last?

Fully dehydrated apples should stay fresh for up to six months in jars or ziplock bags. You can keep them in the freezer to store longer or mylar bags.

Using Dried Apples

Dried apples are wonderful for snacks or for use in a variety of baked goods. Try adding ½ cup of diced dried apples in place of 1 cup fresh apples.

Dehydrated apples can be re-hydrated. To do this, let the apples stand in just enough boiling water to cover them for around 7 minutes. Refrigerate to avoid spoiling.