Autumn is a great time to harvest and prepare for winter. It is in the fall the most delicious and healthy apples, because homemade. You can keep the smell and wonderful taste of apples until the summer
Pick your recipe
There is a very simple and understandable way of harvesting apples used by our grandmothers, grandmothers and pro-pro-grandmothers in the villages. You can’t find a Russian stove anymore, but almost everyone has an electric oven in their house or apartment. There is absolutely nothing complicated in drying apples. Let’s figure out step by step how to dry apples in an electric
Apple preparation
For drying apples in an electric oven, any variety of homemade apples is suitable. You can use different varieties of apples, when the apples are mixed, the taste of apples will be more intense and interesting, sweet with a slight sourness. The number of pieces of apples depends on the capacity of your oven and the number of wire trays.
First of all, apples should be thoroughly washed, let the water drain or wipe the apples dry. Excess moisture will increase drying time. Remove the core and cut the apples into small slices, not more than 5 mm thick. Thus, it will be possible to use dried fruits both in cooking and as chips, in dry form. Due to its lower sugar content, apple chips are suitable even for diabetics and healthy people.
For drying, a trellised baking sheet is required. On it, the apples dry more evenly and do not burn, and the moisture is easy to evaporate. We cover the baking sheet with cooking paper (parchment paper) so that the apples are not burnt and not pinned. Next, lay the apples in even rows. We try so that the slices do not lie on one another.
Drying apples
So, we need an ordinary electric oven. Before placing apples in the oven, you need to preheat the oven to 45-50 degrees. This will leave more nutrients in apples. When the oven warms up, place the pan with apples. First, the apples should be a little sweaty, after an hour we begin to increase the temperature to 70-90 degrees. When the temperature has reached 80 degrees, you need to slightly open the oven door so that excess moisture is gone. We dry apples for three hours in this mode. You can sometimes turn the apples and swap the baking sheets. After three hours, gradually reduce the temperature to 40-60 degrees and then dry the apples at this temperature until ready. If the oven is very powerful, you can repeat the procedure to gradually decrease the temperature and increase it.
You can also use convention mode. At a temperature of 45-50 degrees, dry in a convention mode until apples are fully cooked.
Cooking time for apples depends on the variety of apples and the power of the oven and can take from six to nine hours.
Determining the readiness of apples is very simple. Apples will change their color and will be a delicate beige color with a brownish tint. When bent, the slices should remain elastic, but even if some of them break, the taste and useful properties will remain excellent.
Storage of dried apples
First you need to get a baking sheet with apples from the oven and let the apple slices cool completely. The easiest way to store apples is to store them in a cotton bag or in a regular cardboard box. A little clove, cinnamon and peppermint can be added to the bag or box. This will give the apples an original smell. Mandatory storage: a bag of apples or a drawer must be stored in a dark and dry place. Thus, apples can be stored for more than two seasons, they will not lose their taste, smell and nutritional properties.