Everyone likes pears – they’re just delicious! But did you know that this fruit is also an excellent choice for drying? We’re bringing you a recipe that will allow you to have a taste of dehydrated pear slices, which are, in our opinion, as yummy as is gets. Let’s take a look at the preparation process:
Preparation:
1. A word of advice before you begin – you don’t have to peel the pears. The peeling will make this fruit a really time-consuming food to dry and is totally unnecessary since the peels aren’t fibrous and tough, and are also as tasty as the peeled pears are. The extra fiber in your peels will also make this meal a very healthy snack food, which is yet another additional perk.
2. Start the whole thing by washing your pears in a sink full of cold water, removing all the dirt and yeasts.
3. Once the pears are clean, you can take the sharp knife and cut them into quarters, removing the seeds and the core along the way. Also remove the fibrous string that connects the stem with the core, as well as the worm holes, the brown spots, and the blemishes.
4. Now, take these quarters and cut them into even smaller parts – into eights or even twelfths. Don’t forget about the fact that the smaller slices will dry much quicker.
5. The next step includes dropping the prepared slices into a bath of lemon juice. Once they soak it in, fish out the slices and dry those out on the trays of your dehydrator – this antioxidant treatment will prevent the pears from going brown while they’re getting dried. But if own a really efficient model, your pears will keep their natural color even without the lemon juice.
6. Lay out the slices on the trays of the dehydrator, and dry them in the medium heat. About halfway through the process, remember to switch the uppermost plates with the lowermost ones, and opposite, to ensure the even drying. If you notice that the sugar that’s inside the pears caramelizes and turns the color of the slices into dark brown, remember to reduce the heat and slow down the process.
7. It will take some 30 hours to dry 20 lbs. of pears in a large dehydrator. A few hours before that time, you can sort the slices through and remove the ones that are thoroughly dried, and also move the under dried ones to just one or two racks. The pears will be done once they’re dry to touch.
How to Use the Dried Pears
You can use them as a “pear candy,” i.e. as a healthy snack that you can chew while watching television. You can also snip the slices into raisin size pieces so that you can put them into cookies, muffins, and granola.
Another use would be to put these slices into various salads, rice dishes, and the breaded stuffing, or replace the pineapple slices with them when making a pizza. Wherever you decide to put them into, they will make every meal even more delicious!
I cannot use lemon juice as my granddaughter is allergic- how can I make dehydrated pears?
Try making them without lemon juice and let us know how they turn out 🙂