I went into the other room to get the racks of apples in the early stages of drying, and to my utter shock, they had finished drying to a nice crisp. I quickly threw everything in jars and vacuum sealed them shut so humidity wouldn't have a chance to turn them soggy. So far this season, which just opened three weeks ago, I've put up 7 quarts of dry apples. These make for GREAT snacks!
Time to hit the orchard for some more goodies. :)
Happy Eats!
UPDATE: I've found several hours in the oven (overnight is good) at 170 degrees with the door closed, then removing the racks and placing the apples in front of a small fan seems to finish off the job. I tried it again today since it was a low humidity day, and sure as the sun shines, the apples crisped right up and became crunchy chips that snapped, not bent. I've finished up the bushel with 9 quart jars, and that doesn't include some that were lost along the way to eating, a few that went bad, and some that were cooked.
Fred and I are still pondering the way to design a large capacity dehydrating cabinet so we can make the best of the fruit seasons when they come along. It also would allow us to peel and slice a bushel at a time (hopefully!) which would seriously speed things up. Right now, a bushel takes three rounds of drying in the oven, which is slow going. I'd rather toss everything into a cabinet at once and check the cabinet in a day or two.
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