You Don’t Need a Dehydrator: 5 Fruits You Can Dry in the Oven

If you see a lot of fruit dehydrating in your future, buying a food dehydrator makes sense. Using one is more energy-efficient than slowly baking fruit in a low oven, and the results are more consistent. But if you just want to make the occasional batch of crispy apple chips or intensely-flavored dried tomatoes, keep things simple and gadget-free: use your oven to make dried fruit!

• 1 How To Dry Fruit Without a Dehydrator: When she found herself with a surplus of sour cherries, Emma dried them slowly in her oven and made a big batch of chewy fruit to snack on and bake with for several months.

• 2 How To Make Oven-Dried Apple Chips: Thinly-sliced apple slices take two hours or less to transform into crisp, sweet chips free of the additives you often find in store-bought chips.

• 3 Dried Citrus Slices: An Easy Way to Flavor Water and Tea: Thinly-sliced rounds of oranges, lemons or other citrus can be dried in a low oven and used to flavor water, tea or other beverages. And they’re pretty too!

• 4 Preserving the Season: Make Oven-Roasted Tomatoes: Slow roasting tomatoes in a low-temperature oven for a few hours gives you flavorful tomatoes you can freeze and use throughout the year.

• 5 Snack Recipe: Persimmon Fruit Leather: Dana makes this special autumn snack in her toaster oven, but you could make it in a full-size oven as well.

Do you ever dry fruit in the oven? Share your tips and recipes in the comments!