How to cook dried apricots at home in the dryer and not only

Transcaucasia, China, Iran and Central Asia have long been famous for the manufacture of dried apricots. Apricots make people happy in summer, but you can keep its pleasant sweet taste until winter by drying at home. This procedure is based on removing 80-90% of the moisture in the dryer, due to which microbes lose their ability to reproduce. But at the same time, the activity of dietary fiber is enhanced, a third of vitamins and more than 80% of microelements, such as vitamins C, B, PP, potassium and carotene, remain.

The specificity of drying apricots in the dryer and without it

For drying only ripe, fleshy varieties are suitable, not very juicy and with a low fiber content.

Wild apricots are not suitable for the production of dried apricots, but the cultural fruits now have more than one hundred varieties that differ in taste and ripening time. Since drying is based on the removal of moisture, large, sweet, fleshy fruits that do not taste bitter are used to prepare the dried fruit. These characteristics correspond to the varieties from Central Asia, containing more than 20% sugar, and whose weight is reduced by 5 times. Fruits must be mature, without damage. If you choose a method in the sun, then the varieties are better to choose early, ripening at the very beginning of summer, for better drying on cool days.

Prepare the fruit should be as follows:

1. Before starting the procedure, thoroughly wash the fruit, divide it in half, remove the bones. At the same time you need to get rid of apricots containing any points or larvae. You should not cut such damaged areas, as there is a risk of the appearance of worms in future dried fruits. The kernels of seeds can not be thrown away, but used in chopped form as powder for baking.
2. In order to avoid getting dried fruits of dark color, you need to fold the halves of the fruit into a colander, hold it for about 15 minutes over boiling water. Another way to preserve color is to pour apricots with water and lemon juice.
3. Consider the further use of dried apricots. If only as a dessert, then you need to boil a thick syrup, in which you subsequently put a colander for a few minutes, and if it is better to make a salt solution as an addition to main dishes.

It is best to drain the water by holding the fruit in a colander.

After carrying out the above procedures, it is necessary to allow the water to drain and disperse the apricots on the sides of a large plate to collect in the center of the remaining liquid. Next, you should decide on the method of drying.

Ways of drying apricot at home, which are the most popular and why

Dried apricots contain much more useful properties than jams or compotes. There are several ways of drying fruits, which differ in the method of processing and technology. When the choice is made, you must strictly follow the sequence of actions in order to preserve the finished product for a long time.

Getting dried apricots in the oven

Control that the temperature during the process does not rise above 40 degrees

This method is simple and fast. The following procedure should be followed:

1. Spread the prepared fruit in one layer on parchment paper lattice and put in the oven, preheated to 40 degrees.
2. For uniform heating and drying, free evaporation of moisture, periodically turn over the apricots and gradually increase the temperature to 75-80 degrees.

By the end of the procedure it is not necessary to close the oven tightly. This method of drying will take about 12 hours, and ready fruits should not release juice when pressed, they will be elastic, dry. Perhaps the degree of dryness of individual berries will be different, but after a few days everything will even out.

Dried apricots in boneless electric drier

Fold the fruits so that they do not touch each other.

The main advantages of this method are better dehydration without special heat treatment and maximum preservation of vitamins. This is the easiest way to cook. To prepare should:

1. Spread the fruit up with the pulp on the dryer pallets, for example, the VOLTERA 1000 Lux model, so that they do not touch for good blowing.
2. About 20-24 hours to keep apricots in the dryer at a temperature of about 50 degrees, periodically rearranging the trays for evenness of drying.
3. About 18 hours to dry already dry fruits at a temperature of 65 degrees.
4. Cool and dry apricots will be about 12 hours at room temperature.

Next, you should put them in dry containers or cans, which need to be shaken every day for about two weeks. If condensation is detected, the dried fruit should be dried again for about an hour. In a cool place, they can be stored for several months.

How to dry this fruit in the sun

This method takes about a week to complete the process.

The cheapest, right, natural, but one of the long ways is to dry in the open air in the sun. Before starting the procedure itself, apricots should be covered a little, holding them in the shade in the wind outside. Next you need to adhere to the following order and timing:

1. Pre-spread the fruit on the grid installed on a wooden base.
2. Put dried fruit in the sun and keep it there for about a week, removing them from the street for the night.

There is an option to dry apricots, not spreading them, and hanging on the thread in a shady place. This option significantly increases the time of the procedure.

On the windowsill

This method is also cheap, does not require human effort, special attention.

1. You need to keep apricots on the windowsill in the shade on trays or sheets of paper for about 4 hours.
2. Located on the windowsill on the sunny side, hold until sunset.
3. Then dry for about a week, avoiding excessive direct sunlight.

To speed drying on the windowsill, pre-roll the fruit in the oven

You can combine this method with drying in the oven to save electricity and the process was as close to natural as possible. After drying a little apricots in the oven, you can continue drying on the windowsill.

How to dry over the stove

Above the gas stove, you can install the grid, knocked into a wooden frame on the type of sieve. Above the burners included, the fruit will dry out evenly and quickly enough. This method is close to the natural and only gas costs are considered a minus.

Packed tight, your dried apricots will be stored for about 1.5 years

The originality of dried apricots is that the dried fruit is more useful than fresh due to the variety of applications. The basic rule to remember is that dried apricots are kept in a cool, dry place or freezer. Hermetic packaging will help keep it up to 18 months.

This product is recommended to people as prevention in the period of avitaminosis, for the treatment of problems of internal organs, pregnant for the development of the teeth and bones of the child. Traditional medicine uses as a component of tincture from alcoholism, kissel for cleaning the body.

In winter, dried apricots are used for cooking compotes and baking pies.

Dried apricots are not only sweet to tea, a variety of food on a diet, of which they cook compote, perfectly quenching thirst in summer, and with the addition of whiskey turns into a cocktail. Dried apricots used in the preparation of pastries, cereals or sauces.

If you wish, and a large variety of sunny fruits, you can not only get dried apricots at home, but also dry apples, sweet pears, quince and even exotic bananas.