Christmas Bounty

I haven't been sitting idle between posts, I promise.  Christmas (I know that was months ago!) was an amazingly prosperous one and I received so many awesome and useful gifts.  Let's see.... I got a soap making starter kit, a pressure cooker along with various other canning implements, a ninja food processor, and a food dehydrator.  I am going to focus on the dehydrator in this post.


Onward!

The dehydrator is something I researched and begged for and I have used it a million times since I got it.  I received the Excalibur brand 5 tray because it was highly recommended.  It looks like this:

(Stupid non-rotating photo! grumble grumble)

It has this handy dandy book with time estimations based on food type and a timer that shuts the dehydrator off when the time runs out.  Amazing! So far I've dehydrated:

• apples
• bananas
• strawberries
• fruit leather
• potato bark
• carrots
• kale
• broccoli
• green beans
• pineapple 
• zucchini

I wanted to get a good handle on the process before I took pictures and discussed it here.  I haven't done much experimenting because my three staple items: apples, bananas, and kale have become favorite dehydrated treats.

Let's begin with bananas

 Using a mandolin I slice them into 1/4 to 1/8 inch rounds.  I space them neatly on the rack being sure they don't touch.

Apples

Same story with the apples only after I slice, I soak them in 2 quarts water with 2 TB calcium ascorbate for 2 minutes to prevent browning.  I bought the calcium ascorbate powder at my local health food store but I have found it cheaper on Amazon.

Another sideways picture! I rotated them prior to uploading but they revert when I put them in the post! grrrrrr!

Slide the racks into the dehydrator at 135 degrees for 10 hours and you end up with these beauties.

Texturally, eating dried fruit takes some getting use to.  The banana chips do not come out like the crunchy fried ones you can get at the grocery store.  They are more chewy then crunchy.  The apple chips come out chewy/spongy and it takes a little saliva to be able to get the whole apple flavored goodness.  The strawberries (which I made previously but included in the picture because they are just so pretty) came out crisp and then get chewy once you slobber on them a bit.  Wow I'm making these sound so tasty aren't I?!  Anyway, the apples are a yummy, nutritious, lightweight snack that I really enjoy eating as is.  The strawberries and bananas are delicious cereal toppers.  I put some dried strawberries on my cinnamon shredded wheat, with a splash of almond milk, and it was delicious!

One of the others I've tried but don't have photos for are kale chips.  I've found the perfect dehydrator recipe (thanks Mom) that makes them perfectly crisp. Make sure to rinse thoroughly and remove stems (they get almost woody if you dehydrate them).  Coat evenly with olive oil and lay onto dehydrator tray.  I've used a bunch of different seasonings but my favorites are lemon pepper and garlic salt, and salt with nutritional yeast for a more cheese-like flavor.  Sprinkle seasoning of your choice on top of the kale and pop into dehydrator at 145 degrees for 1 hour, then lower the temp to 115 for an additional hour.  They come out perfect every time, and the boys even like them!  

Pineapple is a great one, too!  Comes out the exact texture you find in the store bought trail mixes.

The dehydrator fails (so far) have been carrots, broccoli, and green beans.  They dehydrated fine, but without reconstitution they are inedible.  Not what I was hoping for but they will be useful for soups, if nothing else.

So there you have it! Just one hippie's chronicle of dehydration madness.
Next up is homemade soap!  Less of a hiatus between blog posts this time...  scouts honor!