2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14
Dried fruits are a real salvation in the long winter. When properly dried, they retain vitamins and minerals. They are easier to store than frozen ones, as they shrink in volume and do not take up space in the refrigerator. Today the subject of our conversation is dried cherries and different ways of drying them.
Preparation of berries
Select the cherries, sort, remove the stalks. Small cherries are preferred as they dry faster.
Wash the berries. Boil water by adding soda to it at the rate of 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of liquid. Prepare a large pot or bowl of cold water
Pour boiling water over the cherry with soda and immediately place in cold water. Place in a colander and let the liquid drain. This procedure is called blanching. It helps soften the skin of the berries, which will speed up the drying process.
After that, you can remove the bones. This is optional if you plan to use the berries only for cooking compotes. In other cases, it is more convenient to use pitted cherries, which can be removed with a special device, a juice tube, a stick, a knitting needle,hairpin.
Sun drying
Line a tray or baking sheet with thick paper. Spread the berries on the surface. Place the tray outside in a sunny location. During the day, let the berries dry under the rays, and at night, put the cherries under the roof.
If you dry whole berries, the process will take four days. Dried cherries should be elastic, not release juice when pressed and have a slightly glossy surface.
If you cut the fruits into halves, then after this time they should be placed in an oven preheated to 55-60 degrees and kept there for 10 hours. At the same time, 2-3 hours before the end of drying, the temperature should be increased to 70-75 degrees.
From 1 kilogram of fresh berries, about 200 grams of dried berries are obtained.
Oven drying
If you don't want to wait for the berries to dry naturally, you can use the oven. You will get absolutely the same dried cherry. We offer the following recipe.
Prepare sugar syrup: pour 1 liter of water into a saucepan, wait for it to boil and gradually (one spoonful) add 800 grams of sugar. Stir thoroughly until it dissolves completely.
Set the fire to medium. Put the berries in the water and boil for 5-8 minutes. Then scoop them out with a large spoon or ladle and transfer to a colander. It is advisable to do this over a large clean bowl so that the delicious cherry syrup does not disappear. If there are many cherries, process in batches in the same way using the same water.
When the liquid is completely drained from the berries, arrange them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Place it on the highest level of the oven, set the temperature to 165 degrees and keep the berries inside for 3 hours. Then lower the temperature to 135 degrees - let them dry further. This can take from 12 hours to a day.
The oven door must be kept ajar at all times during drying.
Tumble Drying
Berries are prepared as described above. The only subtlety is that when using a dryer, the bones will have to be removed, since the protective shell must be broken. Otherwise, hot air will not get inside, and instead of dried ones, you will get boiled cherries. You can simply damage (crush, cut) each berry, leaving the seeds in place, but this is irrational.
The rest of the process is simple: the cherries are laid out in the dryer, the average mode is set (55-60 degrees). If the berries are laid out close to each other, then they need to be stirred periodically.
Dry-dried cherries should be slightly soft and sticky when done. If it becomes hard, then you overdry it.
Dried cherries, method one
There are not only dried cherries, but also dried cherries.
Prepare the cherries in the usual way. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. For 1 kilogram of cherries, 250 grams of sugar and 300 ml of water will be required.
Put half of the berries into the pan. When the water boils again, cover the container with a lid and boil7 minutes, then put the berries in a colander. Do the same for the remaining cherries. Remove bones if necessary.
After the liquid drains, spread the berries to dry on a baking sheet or tray. You can do this with your hands or tweezers - whichever is more convenient for you. It is not necessary to lay paper or grease the surface.
Turn the cherries the next day or the next day.
Dry to the degree of softness that you need. Depending on the temperature and humidity in the room, the process will take one to two weeks. If it is possible to place in the sun, then faster.
From 1 kilogram of fresh berries, about 300 grams of dried berries are obtained.
Dried cherries, second method
Prepare the cherries, put them in an enamel pan and sprinkle with sugar. Sugar can be taken 400-500 grams per 1 kilogram of cherries - depending on how sweet the berries themselves are.
After that, leave the cherries for a day at room temperature to extract the juice. After this time, discard the berries in a colander. Cook sugar syrup from 300 ml of water and 300 grams of sugar. Remove the syrup from the heat, put the berries in it and soak for 5 minutes.
Spread the cherries taken out of sweet water on a baking sheet in one layer and send to the oven preheated to 80 degrees for half an hour.
Remove the berries from the oven and let them cool completely at room temperature. After that, carefully turn them over with a wooden spatula and send them back to the oven for half an hour, but already at a temperature of 70 degrees.
After the second drying, cool the berries again and repeat the “session” of drying at a temperature of 65-70 degrees for 30 minutes.
Storage of dried berries
Store dried cherries at home preferably in an airtight container or in a glass jar with a lid. Even better, if you pre-sterilize the jars. It is acceptable to use a cotton bag, but this will shorten the shelf life of the dried fruit. Plastic bags should not be used, as they will mold the cherries after a while.
You can make small cloth bags of s alt and put them in a container of berries to extend the shelf life.
Make sure the cherry dries evenly. Select and dry the unfinished berries, otherwise pests may appear in them during storage, which will ruin the entire batch.
The optimum temperature is between 0 and 10 degrees, so it is preferable to place dried fruits in the refrigerator. Under such conditions, dried cherries will “live” for about a year and a half.
At room temperature, the shelf life is reduced to a year. In this case, it is better to choose the upper shelves of kitchen cabinets for placement, as the air is drier there.
If you place the berry in a fabric bag, then keep it as far away from products with a strong odor as possible.
During storage, especially when using leaky containers, periodically check for bugs in the berries.
Benefits and harms of dried cherries
Dried cherries, the recipe of which is verysimple, not only diversifies the winter menu, but also makes it useful. It contains vitamins C, A, PP, as well as calcium, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, iron, antioxidants.
Pectins remove harmful substances from the body, improve intestinal motility, normalize metabolism.
Dried cherries are not recommended for people with chronic lung diseases and high acidity of gastric juice. In diabetes, it should be consumed in limited quantities.
So we figured out how to make and how to store dried cherries. Bon appetit!
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