We recently scored a huge bucket of sour cherries from a local farm, and after we'd made all the pies and ice creams we could stand, we decided to experiment with drying our few remaining cups. Our only problem? No dehydrator! Instead, we turned to the oven.
This turned out to be remarkably simple. We turned on our oven as low as it would go - about 200° for us - and spaced the cooking racks evenly apart. We covered a few baking sheet with silpats and parchment (not enough silpats to go around!), and spread the fruit out in an even layer. To see if it made a difference, we tried drying some of the fruit directly on the baking sheet and another batch with the fruit suspended over the baking sheet on a wire cooling rack.
Then we popped the sheets in the oven and set the clock!
At about the four-hour mark, we started to see signs of shriveling. The fruit on the wire rack was done after about 6 hours, and the fruit on the baking sheet was done after 8 hours. By the time they were done, the cherries had shrunk to the size of raisins and turned deep purple. We left them a tad chewy, but they seemed dehydrated enough that they should keep for a few months in an air tight container.
We call this experiment a success! It took a good chunk of our day, but it's almost entirely hands-off. Drying the fruit on a rack suspended above the baking sheet definitely shaved off some time, so we'll go that route in the future. If we dry larger fruits like apple slices or apricots, we'll probably still flip them a few times for even drying.
We're glad to know that we don't necessarily need a dehydrator to dry fruit. Using the oven is less energy efficient, but if we're only making a few batches of dried fruit a year, we don't see the need to add another gadget to our collection. Plus, if we can find a few extra oven shelves, we can dry several batches at once.
Do you dry your own fruit? How do you do it?
Related: For Cherry Pies, Use a Cherry Pitter
(Images: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
(Originally published August 12, 2009)
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Works for tomatoes too. I turned a glut of cheap fresh tomatoes into a winter's worth of expensive "sun" dried tomatoes.
I've had good success with drying prunes in the oven and fig halves. I put a small fan near the oven door. The breeze of air into the oven helps drive off the fruit's moisture, make drying more uniform and shorten the drying time. It's a trick I learned in the apple drying industry.
Lona, that sounds like a good trick! Do you prop the oven door open and point the fan inside?
depending what oven you have, it might even have a drying function built in - ours does. Not that I've ever used it, but it's there should I some day feel the need :o)
Emma,
Yes, I prop the door open with a my metal salad tongs about 4" and aim the fan in one side toward the back of the oven. The open door lets the moisture escape. Use a low speed, the idea is to keep the air inside circulating. In the fruit drying industry where I did R&D, the fruit enters a long, hot tunnel with air coming up from below.
Thanks, Lona! I think I'm definitely going to try this trick with some tomatoes this weekend, as ChzPlz suggests!
Wonder if this method will work with kiwi fruit...
Wonder if this would work in my toaster oven. Though the much smaller batches would offset the energy savings from not having to heat a whole oven. Hrm.
I've done dog treats - chicken breast sliced thin along the grain and dried in the oven overnight.
I can't believe I've never thought of doing fruit and tomatoes. I'm trying it today.
I was wondering if it's really energy efficient to have a dehydrator?
Anyone did the math for this?
Is it necessary to pit the cherries first?
thaicat: I did. Actually..I don't have a cherry pitter so I just halved the cherries with a knife and pulled the pits out. This is my very first attempt at drying cherries (or anything!). They're in the oven right now. (Reason...fresh Bing Cherries on sale for $1.47/lb. Around here they're not going to get much cheaper).
Crossing fingers!
It's summer - time in Louisiana and the outside temps are already hitting 100 degrees. I'm about to dry my fruit by just laying it out on a cookie sheet and place it in the car during the day, cheaper an more efficient than an oven, wondering if I need to add anything to the fruit before drying it though
Holy cow, David8888, is it ever hot in Louisiana! And it's going to get worse this next week.
I'm going to try this with the last few ripe figs I can scavange from my tree. Hope this technique works. Thanks for the tips.
Dang, this is great - wish I had discovered this when the berries were still out in New England!! Thank you for the information - does anyone know how long they last? I assume dried fruit from the store does not use preservatives.....?
ohhh. I have some fruit in my refrigerator right now that I suddenly think needs to be dried. Yay.
I usually set all this up at night, turn the oven on lowest, pop the fruit/veggies in, go to bed and leave it until the next morning. Wake up to an amazing smell throughout the house and "sun dried" goodness from the oven!
We just bought a gas convection oven and it has a "Dehydrate" button on it. We weren't sure how to use it and haven't had time to test anything. Thanks for some simple guidelines, we'll be doing some apples and bananas this weekend.
I did this with strawberries last year. Then I read that from a food safety standpoint, it wasn't such a great idea because oven-drying doesn't get enough of the moisture out (compared to more dedicated forms of drying). By that point I didn't really care because I ate all of the strawberries within ten minutes of taking them out of the oven anyway. So good!
Thinking on Alice's comment right above mine here... any way of knowing if the fruit gets dried enough to store outside the fridge, or how long it would keep once in the fridge after drying? I would assume two weeks in the fridge after drying, just to be safe.
if you want more info on drying fruit, I suggest finding alton browns Good Eats episode. It was on last week, he is a genius!
Here's the Alton Brown link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paRlryNMk0M
After reading about the fan thing, I bet this would work great with our convection microwave. Has anyone tried drying fruit I one of those?
Since the oven temp is really not low enough what about burning a sterno in the back corner of the oven and just choking down the flame? I believe Sterno burns clean, thoughts?