How to cook homemade dried apricots: methods and nuances. Dried apricot

How to dry apricots at home - various methods, as well as tips on how to dry dried apricots correctly.

Homemade dried apricots are not only very tasty, but also healthy. Store-bought dried apricots are treated with sulfur dioxide during cooking; as you know, the use of chemicals does not make any product healthy. Drying apricots yourself will allow you to obtain a clean and healthy product. There are various ways to dry apricots at home.

First stage: preparatory operations (the same for all methods of drying apricots).

1) Only mature fruits are suitable for drying apricots, without wormholes or external damage (rot). After sorting, we thoroughly wash the fruits, then remove the seeds by making an incision or cutting them into halves.

2) To prevent dried apricots from darkening during cooking, soak the fruits for 10 minutes in a citric acid solution. To prepare the solution, we need to mix a liter of water and eight teaspoons of citric acid. Fresh lemon juice is also good for preparing the solution.

3) After soaking the apricots in citric acid, the fruits need to be removed and the water allowed to drain.

1) Outdoors in the open sun (at the dacha, garden plot, balcony). Naturally, this method is relevant in hot sunny weather in the summer.
First of all, we prepare metal or wooden gratings. They must first be washed and then dried thoroughly. Next, place the fruits cut side up. When placing apricots on the grill, you need to make sure that they do not touch each other. After all the apricots have been laid out, place the grill in the open sun and dry under the open rays for four days. Then we dry the fruits in the shade or using an electric dryer. It is worth remembering that at night dried apricots are removed in places protected from moisture (dew and rain). In total, the process of drying apricots in the fresh air can take 7-12 days.

If you plan to dry dried apricots in the shade, then you need to lay the fruits as densely as possible. In addition, for drying outside, you need to choose a well-ventilated place. The finished dried apricots acquire an orange color by the end of drying. Taste the dried apricots - they should be too dry. You should also know that during drying the weight of apricots noticeably decreases. For reference, four kilograms of fresh apricots yield one kilogram of dried apricots.

2) Cook dried apricots in the oven. It is worth noting that many housewives do not recommend drying apricots in the oven, but what to do if it is raining outside and there is no electric vegetable dryer. In this case, there is only one way out - cooking dried apricots in a conventional oven.
Let us consider in more detail the technology of drying apricots in this way.
Prepared fruits (sorted, washed, pitted, soaked in citric acid and dried from moisture) are placed on a wire rack or baking sheet and placed in the oven. Drying dried apricots in the oven takes approximately 8-10 hours at a low temperature, maximum 65 degrees. When drying apricots, be sure to periodically open the oven slightly for ventilation, this will speed up the process of cooking dried apricots. From the moment they are half-ready, you need to monitor the condition of the fruit so as not to dry them out.

I consider it necessary to highlight another important point - how to determine the readiness of dried apricots? To be 100% sure that dried apricots are ready, you need to evaluate three indicators:

1) Dip the dried apricots into hot water. If dried apricots swell well in hot water, this indicates its readiness and good quality.

2) By touch. In dried apricot fruits, only ten percent of the original amount of moisture remains. To the touch, such dried apricots are dry, but at the same time elastic. It is a little heavier than the overdried one.

3) By smell. When tapped, the finished dried apricots should not emit a dry, harsh odor. This sign is typical for overdried fruits.

4) By color. The finished fruits are moderately orange or dull brown; too rich a color is not an indicator of quality.

Finally, it should be noted that when cooking dried apricots at home, apricots are not always dried evenly. To even out the drying, you need to place the fruits in a cardboard box or wooden container for several days and close the top. This will help even out the moisture throughout the dried apricot mass.

A few words about storing dried apricots. It is recommended to store dried apricots in thick fabric bags, boxes or wooden jars in dry and cool conditions. The shelf life of high-quality dried apricots is two years.

Happy preparations!

Methods for drying apricots. Getting dried apricots at home.

Properly dried apricots provide enormous nutritional value to the body. Let's talk about options for drying “sunny” fruits at home.

How to dry apricots for the winter using dried apricots at home?

• The benefits of apricots are undeniable. How I would like to enjoy these fruits all year round! Vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, organic acids, macro- and microelements - an invaluable contribution to the health of the body and the flawless functioning of all organs
• Apricots are especially useful for heart diseases. Potassium contained in fruits is an important element for the normal functioning of the myocardium of the heart muscle.
• How to stock up on apricots for the whole year? There are many options for preparing and storing delicious fruits. One of them is drying apricots
• Drying is the natural or artificial evaporation of liquid by concentrating and preserving the beneficial substances contained in the fruit. This method eliminates the risk of the development of microorganisms during subsequent proper storage of products

Video: How to prepare dried apricots at home?

Benefits of dried apricots for restoring energy

Dried apricot fruits are a healthy treat for both adults and children

• Dried apricots are a high-calorie product containing organic sugars: fructose, glucose and other low molecular weight carbohydrates
• Several dried apricot fruits help suppress hunger and restore the body's energy costs during hikes and long trips.
• Dry apricots can be used as a snack between meals in many weight loss programs

Some tricks for drying apricots

• Fully ripe and undamaged apricots are selected for drying.
• If the fruits have just been picked from the tree and are clean, then it is better not to wash dried apricots and apricots for harvesting.
• To avoid darkening of the fruit during drying, you should keep the apricot halves in a colander over hot steam for some time and dip them in a solution with lemon juice or citric acid in the proportion: 8 teaspoons per liter of water. Then dry the fruits on a cloth or wire rack

At what temperature should you dry apricots?

The temperature factor when drying fruits is the most important component of proper drying technology.

The fruit drying process begins and ends at a lower temperature: 40-50 degrees. The main drying is carried out at an optimal temperature of 60-70 degrees.

How to dry apricots for the winter in an electric dryer?

• A variety of electric dryers from different manufacturers greatly facilitate and speed up the process of drying fruits. They have different configurations, are equipped with sets of plastic trays and are equipped with a fan and a powerful heating element
• The fruit halves are laid out loosely on plastic trays so that the fruits lie at some distance from each other and cannot stick together. The first and last two hours of drying are set to 50 degrees. In the middle of the process, the temperature is maintained at 60 degrees. On average, apricots are dried in an electric dryer for 10 hours, depending on the density of the fruit

Video: Dried apricots in an electric dryer

How to dry apricots in the oven?

Apricots can be dried in the oven with careful temperature control.

• First, the apricot halves are dried at room temperature for 3-4 hours. Then place on wire racks covered with parchment and dry in the oven at a temperature not exceeding 60 degrees.
• Since there is no ventilation in the oven, you should dry apricots with the oven slightly open. To ensure even drying, it is recommended to turn the apricot slices over from time to time.
• At the end of drying, you should lower the temperature to 50 degrees and carefully monitor so that the fruits do not dry out. If individual fruits are dried unevenly, you should keep the dried fruits for some time in the air at room temperature until completely cooked

How to properly dry apricots for dried fruits in the sun?

• In areas with long hot and sunny days without rain, drying apricots outdoors in the sun is considered the best way to harvest fruits
• Before drying in the open sun, apricots should be dried in a shady place, well blown by the wind, for 3-4 hours
• The fruits are placed on fabric or wooden grates in a place with maximum sun exposure for a long time with good air circulation. At night, it is better to store fruits in a dry place to avoid them becoming damp.
• Apricots can also be strung on twine and hung to dry. To ensure even drying of the fruits, they should be turned over periodically. After 2-3 weeks, you can get high-quality dried apricots with a full range of useful components. Moreover, the fruits have a long shelf life
• 5-6 days is the optimal period for drying apricots in the sun

IMPORTANT: To ensure that the fruits have an attractive presentation and are less likely to spoil, they are fumigated with sulfur dioxide or sulfur. Such fruits are not recommended for children and people prone to allergic reactions.

How to dry apricots in the microwave?

How to dry apricots in an air fryer?

To prepare dried fruits, you can use an air fryer, which can easily replace an electric dryer and oven.

An air grill is a household electrical appliance that operates on the principle of a convection oven. The hot air heating system and the presence of a powerful fan allow you to dry fruits and vegetables.

1. Washed and dried apricots are cut into halves
2. Place the fruits on the air fryer grill so that they do not touch each other
3. Drying is carried out at high fan speed at a temperature of 60-70 degrees
4. If the apricots are not dry enough during one cycle of operation of the air fryer, the drying process can be resumed again

How to dry apricot kernels?

According to the latest scientific data, apricot kernels have valuable healing effects and are of interest for the prevention and treatment of a number of diseases.

IMPORTANT: Eating a small amount of apricot kernels is beneficial and does not cause intoxication of the body. You should only use sweet kernels in an amount of no more than 50 g per day. The dose for children is 25 g, depending on age.

For drying, varieties are used in which the seeds are easily separated from the fruit. The seeds are laid out in a thin layer on trays or baking sheets and dried in ventilated areas or in the open air, possibly in the sun. The seeds are stirred periodically to ensure even drying.

Video: About the benefits of apricot kernels

Video: How to dry apricots?

Dried apricots, dried apricots, not only look bright and life-affirming on the shelves in the winter cold, but also contain a lot of useful substances. You can make this orange delicacy yourself at home, you just need to know the technology and follow it...

We will describe in detail the recipe for preparing such dried fruit below.

General information

Before presenting a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home, you should tell us what kind of product it is and what properties it has.

Dried apricots, apricots and kaisa - many people believe that these words are synonymous. But that's not true. These products have only one thing in common - the raw material is apricot.

Dried fruit with a pit is called apricot, dried apricots are dried in cut form, and kaisa is a whole fruit from which the pit has been removed.

All housewives should know a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home. After all, when dried, apricot retains almost all its beneficial properties. That is why such a product is an invaluable source of microelements and vitamins.

Today, dried apricot production is widespread in Turkey and Tajikistan. However, the birthplace of apricot is China. It was in the Celestial Empire that they began to cultivate it in order to obtain tasty and aromatic fruits.

Dried apricots at home: recipe with photo of dried fruit

There are different ways to dry apricots at home. Some people do this using an oven, others use a dehydrator, and others prefer to carry out this process in the sun. In any case, no matter which method you choose, such apricot preparation will definitely turn out tasty and healthy, especially in winter.

So how to make dried apricots? The recipe for making dried fruit requires the following set of ingredients:

• fresh apricots - about 3 kg;
• cold drinking water - 4 cups;
• freshly squeezed lemon juice - 1 cup.

Product selection

Before implementing a recipe for making dried apricots at home, you should choose the right apricots. The fruits must be ripe. However, when purchasing them, make sure that they are not too soft or, conversely, hard.

Product processing

To prepare homemade dried apricots, all apricots must be peeled from existing stalks, then placed in a colander and washed one by one in hot water. Next, the products should be dried with paper towels and a circular cut should be made. Turning the halves of the fruit in different directions, separate them and remove the drupe. After this, the apricots are placed in a deep bowl and filled with water, which is mixed in advance with freshly squeezed lemon juice. If you are too lazy to go to the store for such a sour fruit, then you can use regular citric acid instead.

In this form, the fresh product is kept for about half an hour, and then placed again on paper or waffle towels. After a few minutes you can start drying the apricots.

Drying fruits in a dehydrator

A recipe for dried apricots at home is very often implemented using a device such as a dehydrator. The halves of apricots are laid out on the mesh of the device with the cuts down. In this form, the products are left at 55-60 degrees for 20-40 minutes. The degree of drying of apricots depends on your desire. If you like meatier products, you shouldn't keep them in the dehydrator for too long. If you want to get wrinkled and dry dried apricots, then the cooking time should be more than 30-40 minutes.

How and where to store?

Now you know how to prepare dried apricots at home. The recipe with a photo of this dried fruit was presented above. However, this information is not enough to preserve dried apricots in proper form for a long time. Therefore, all housewives who like to prepare dried fruits for the winter on their own should know how to store it.

Experienced cooks say that such a product is best preserved in a fabric bag, which is placed in a dry and dark room. Although some housewives prefer to put ready-made dried apricots in jars or in this case, it is better to store the products in the refrigerator. If you do this at room temperature, then most likely the dried fruits will become moldy and become unfit for consumption.

Oven drying process

Above we told you about how homemade dried apricots are dried in a dehydrator. The recipe for preparing such dried fruit can also be implemented in the oven. After all, not all housewives have the mentioned device. To do this, you should carry out all the same steps as described above. In other words, the apricots are carefully processed, washed, cut into halves, soaked in lemon water and dried on a towel.

After the described steps, the halves of the fruit are placed on a baking sheet, which is previously covered with parchment paper. In this case, the cut of the apricots should be on top.

In this position, the products are sent to the oven, where they are kept for 4-5 hours. In this case, be sure to observe a temperature regime of 100-130 degrees. The apricots should dry out, become wrinkled, and take on a richer color.

Drying items in the sun

Experienced chefs claim that apricots are able to retain maximum nutrients if they are not subjected to heat treatment, but dried in the hot sun. But not everyone has such an opportunity. Indeed, in urban conditions it is quite difficult to make tasty and healthy dried apricots using sunlight. If you live in an ecologically clean region where hot weather prevails in summer, then this method is quite possible. To do this, you will need to process the apricots, pit them, wash them, soak them in lemon water and dry them. Next, the fruit halves need to be placed on a large, flat surface (for example, on a baking sheet, cutting board, etc.), which is covered in advance with cling or plain paper. In this case, you need to make sure that the apricot cuts are facing upward.

After all the fruits have been arranged properly, they are placed in the sun. In this case, it is advisable to ensure that the apricots were in a draft or in a well-ventilated place.

If you are afraid that your dried apricots will become covered with dust or will be susceptible to insect attacks, then they should be covered with gauze or closed with some kind of mesh box that allows both sunlight and air to pass through well, but does not allow dirt and flies to get inside.

Let's sum it up

Having presented a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home, all you have to do is make a choice. Using the described methods of drying apricots, you are sure to get a tasty and healthy product that can be used for completely different purposes. Some people make various desserts, pies and pies from dried apricots, some make compotes from it, and some even use it just like that, instead of candy.

Dried apricot, although inferior in content of nutrients to fresh apricot, still contains more of them than jam, jam or compote. Apricots are perishable fruits, drying is one of the best ways to preserve them, and it does not require a lot of money.

Apricots are perishable fruits, drying is one of the best ways to preserve them

Before you start drying apricots, you should decide what you want to get in the end. Does the question seem strange? Naturally, dried apricots. Do you know what dried apricot is actually called, and dried apricots are just one of its varieties.

The name depends on the integrity of the fruit and its size. Small dried apricots with pits are called apricots, large ones are called shepala. If the seed is squeezed out through the hole near the stalk with minimal disruption of the fruit, then when dried, the result is kaisa. And if individual apricot halves are dried, naturally without pits, then this is dried apricots. Connoisseurs distinguish between a product made from cut fruits and those broken without the help of a knife.

Video about homemade dried apricots

But it is not customary to distinguish ready-made dried apricots by what variety they are made from.

However, when choosing apricots suitable for obtaining a quality product, the variety is of great importance. For dried apricots, large, not too juicy fruits with dense pulp and a high sugar content are suitable; the stone should be easy to remove. Many Central Asian varieties have such qualities, some of which contain more than 20% sugar, but even in the middle zone you can choose suitable ones with sufficient sugar content of about 10%. The weight of properly selected, dense apricots is reduced by 5-6 times when dried.

Fully ripe, undamaged fruits collected from the tree are selected; the rejected ones can be dried in the form of apricots or sear. It is advisable to wash the apricots intended for dried apricots so thoroughly that the finished dried fruit can be consumed unwashed, otherwise it will lose some of its nutrients. The fruit is divided into halves and the pit is removed.

The fruit is divided into halves and the pit is removed.

In terms of vitamin content, dried apricots are somewhat poorer than apricots, but this healthy delicacy has another advantage: it can be given a very beautiful, juicy, amber color. When producing a commercial product, the effect is usually achieved by treating prepared apricots with sulfur dioxide. The method, although prescribed by technology, is considered not entirely environmentally friendly. In order to obtain dried apricots at home, we can recommend more acceptable ways to preserve color.

If the bright appearance of the future dried apricot is important to the manufacturer, then before drying, he puts the prepared apricot halves in a colander and keeps it over steam for 5 - 10 minutes, depending on the hardness of the fruit; in some cases, instead of steaming, the fruit can even be boiled for 5 minutes. After this, place the apricots on a clean cloth to drain off excess moisture. The dried fruit is not as spectacular as when processed with sulfur, but still brighter than dull, not steamed dried apricots.

To preserve color, you can soak washed fruits in a solution of citric acid.

Also, to preserve color, you can soak washed fruits in a solution of citric acid, prepared at the rate of 1 teaspoon per liter of water.

The most gentle option, which produces the healthiest dried fruits, is to dry the fruits directly on the tree, this is how you get apricots from suitable varieties. It is also advisable to dry dried apricots in the most natural conditions possible; this requires a ventilated, unshaded place (yard, balcony or roof) and hot sunny weather. There should be no road with exhaust fumes or dust nearby .

The halves of the fruits are first kept in the shade, preferably in the wind or draft, after 3 - 4 hours they are laid out with cuts up, separately, so that they do not stick together, on wooden grids or folded into willow wickers and exposed to the sun. You can use a metal grid, but be sure to lay a thin cloth on it. At night, the workpieces are removed indoors, the same in case of temporary bad weather. After a few days, the slices will wilt, shrink in size and become non-sticky, then they can be arranged more closely. Depending on the temperature and properties of the fruit, drying lasts one to two weeks.

It is advisable to dry dried apricots in the most natural conditions possible.

Some manufacturers string apricot halves onto a thread and pull it horizontally. If the fruits are not too juicy and dense enough so as not to bunch up and stick together, then this method is acceptable. Softer apricots can be strung on twigs or thin wooden skewers, and placed at an angle, inserting one end into specially drilled holes. In areas where winds often blow in hot weather, fruits strung on threads or twigs dry out even in the shade.

A problem that often accompanies the “old-fashioned” method is insects - ants and flies. Practitioners advise frequently changing the location of the product in order to “deceive” the ants, but this requires a large available area and constant monitoring. It is easier to place the apricot on a table whose legs are immersed in bowls of water. To protect against flies, the fruits can be covered with gauze; if the sun is hot enough, this is acceptable.

Another option is to adapt an old double window frame for a solar dryer, replacing the glass with a plastic mesh. Such a device, suspended in a horizontal position, provides high-quality drying and protection from insects.

For those who do not have a suitable area for solar drying of fruit or prefer to receive a batch of dried apricots within one day, it is possible to use household appliances. The best modern dryers are equipped with a powerful heater, a fan, a tray system that increases the usable area, and a thermostat. Manufacturers are constantly improving their products, as a result, the process of preparing dried fruits is becoming more and more simple and convenient, and the result is of higher quality.

Place the slices on trays separately so that they do not stick together.

Features of working with one or another device are indicated in the attached instructions, but you need to take into account the basic rules for handling apricots. Place the slices on trays separately so that they do not stick together. During the first and last 2 - 3 hours, set the temperature to 45 - 50 ° C, in the middle of the process - up to 60 ° C. Drying duration is 8 – 10, less often – up to 12 hours.

If you don’t have a special dryer, you can successfully use a regular oven, but you have to keep the process under constant control. Due to the lack of ventilation, the oven is maintained at a higher temperature, 60–65 °C, and the door is opened slightly from time to time to remove moisture; towards the end of drying, the temperature is lowered slightly. From the moment they are half-ready, you need to monitor the condition of the fruit so as not to dry them out.

Video about making dried apricots at home

How to determine the readiness of dried apricots?

To find out that your dried apricots are ready, just check them according to three indicators:

1. To the touch. In properly dried dried apricots, about 10% of the original amount of water remains; it is dry, but elastic, pleasant to the touch and slightly heavier than overdried dried apricots - hard, making a dry, hard sound when tapped.
2. Place in water. A sure indicator of good quality is the ability to swell in hot water. This product retains about 30% of the vitamins contained in fresh apricots and up to 80% of the original minerals.
3. By color. Dried apricots prepared without chemical treatment are moderately yellow, orange or dull brown; too rich a color is not an indicator of quality and does not attract informed consumers.

Dried apricots cooked without chemical treatment are moderately yellow, orange or dull brown.

Sometimes when cooking at home, apricot slices dry unevenly. To level them, they are placed for several days in a closed cardboard box or wooden vessel for the so-called “sweating”, while the moisture is evenly distributed throughout the entire mass of the product. Dried apricots can be stored in the same boxes or wooden jars, placed in a cool, dry room, or hung in a bag made of thick fabric. High-quality dried apricots can be stored for up to two years.