Apples and Bananas...

Dehydrating
1/18/15

This week was dehydration week! Not for myself. I drank plenty of water. My parents and I both have 5 tier food dehydrators, and I employed both of them to dry the pounds of bananas and apples bought previously. When fruit is scarce and expensive during our winter months in South Dakota, a little bit of dried banana and apple will be a nice treat.
Bananas were peeled, sliced 1/4 inch thick, and half were dipped in a honey/water mixture. The better part of an afternoon was spent on prep work, and the bananas dehydrated for 2 days. The total dehydration time was only about 12 hours, but I was nervous about over-drying them, so every time I left the house or went to sleep, the dehydrator was turned off. The bananas dipped in honey water took a couple hours longer. Consequently, the air was thick with the sticky sweet smell of bananas for 2 days. The bananas in the honey water dried a little more yellow and silky than the ones without, with a slightly sweeter taste. Other than that, there wasn't much difference save the dehydrating time, and banana's carry enough sugar in them already that I don't think the honey water is necessary. The entire dehydrator only filled one quart jar and one pint jar... another couple days of a banana-flavored home might be in store...

11 bananas (a whole dehydrator's worth) dried & stored away

The apples were cored and peeled with an old apple-corer hidden away in my mother's cupboard, cut into rings, dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg, and dehydrated for about 4 1/2 hours. What with the apple-corer, the whole preparation process only took a couple hours. Cinnamon-apple smells are so pleasant! Some sources recommend soaking the apples in ascorbic acid or fruit juice to retain color (I presume), but I don't find it necessary. Ten sliced apples took up almost 2 full dehydrators so I hoped for a little more bulk on these than the bananas. When all was said and done, the dried apples filled a gallon-sized plastic bag, and I could have gone a little easier on the cinnamon dusting. But they will be tasty nonetheless.