A simple recipe for dried apricots at home

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

How to make dried apricots at home? 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 what kind of product it is, what properties it has.

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

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

A step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home should be known to all housewives. After all, when dried, the apricot retains almost all the beneficial properties. That is why such a product is an invaluable source of trace elements and vitamins.

Today, the production of dried apricots is widespread in Turkey and Tajikistan. However, the birthplace of the apricot is China. It was in the Celestial Empire that apricot trees began to be cultivated in order to obtain tasty and fragrant fruits.

Dried apricots at home:recipe with photo of dried fruit

There are many ways to dry apricots at home. Some do it in the oven, some use a dehydrator, and some prefer to do it in the sun. In any case, no matter which method you choose, such an apricot preparation will definitely turn out tasty and he althy, especially in winter.

So how do you make dried apricots? The dried fruit recipe requires the use of the following set of ingredients:

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

Product selection

Before you implement the recipe for making dried apricots at home, apricots should be chosen correctly. Fruit must be ripe. However, when buying 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 the existing stalks, and then put in a colander and washed in hot water one by one. Next, the products should be dried with paper towels and a circular incision should be made. Turning the halves of the fruit in different directions, they are separated and the drupe is taken out. After that, the apricots are laid out in a deep bowl and poured with water, which is pre-mixed 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.

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

Dry fruits in a dehydrator

The recipe for dried apricots at home is very often sold through a device such as a dehydrator. Halves of apricots are laid out on the grid of the device with slices down. In this form, the product is left at 55-60 degrees for 20-40 minutes. The degree of drying of apricots depends on your desire. If you like more meaty products, then you should not 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 dried apricots are prepared at home. The recipe with a photo of this dried fruit was presented above. However, this information is not enough to keep dried apricots in the proper form for a long time. Therefore, all housewives who love to harvest dried fruits for the winter on their own must know how to store it.

Experienced chefs say that such a product is best preserved in a cloth bag, which is placed in a dry and dark room. Although some housewives prefer to put the finished dried apricots in jars or a plastic bag. In this case, it is better to store the products in a refrigerator. If you do this at room temperature, then most likely the dried fruit will become moldy and unusable.

Processoven drying

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

After the described actions, the fruit halves are laid out on a baking sheet, which is covered with parchment paper in advance. In this case, the slice of apricots should be on top.

In this position, the products are sent to the oven, where they are kept for 4-5 hours. At the same time, the temperature regime of 100-130 degrees must be observed. The apricots should dry out, become wrinkled and have a more intense color.

Dry products in the sun

Experienced chefs say that apricots are able to retain a maximum of useful substances if they are not subjected to heat treatment, but dried in the hot sun. But not everyone has this opportunity. Indeed, in urban conditions it is quite difficult to make tasty and he althy 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 implement. To do this, you will need to process the apricots, peel them, wash them, soak them in lemon water and dry them. Next, halves of the fruit need to be laid outon a large and even surface (for example, on a baking sheet, cutting board, etc.), which is pre-covered with food or plain paper. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that the slices of apricots look up.

After all the fruits are laid out 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 be covered with dust or attacked by insects, then it should be covered with gauze or closed with some kind of mesh box that passes both sunlight and air well, but does not allow dirt and flies to get in inside.

Summarize

Having presented a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home, you just have to make a choice. Using the described methods of drying apricots, you are sure to get a tasty and he althy product that can be used for completely different purposes. Someone makes various desserts, pies and pies from dried apricots, someone cooks compotes from it, and someone just uses it just like that, instead of sweets.