A simple recipe for dried apricots at home

How to make dried apricots at home? The recipe for making such dried fruit is described in detail below.

General information

Before you submit 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 kaisas - very many people believe that these words are synonymous. But this is not so. The common in these products is only one - the raw material in the form of apricot.

A dried fruit with a stone is called as dried apricots, dried apricots are cut in a cut form, and the kaisa is a whole fruit, from which the stone was removed.

A step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home should be known to all the housewives. After drying, apricot retains practically all the useful properties. That is why such a product is an invaluable source of microelements and vitamins.

Today, the production of dried apricots is common in Turkey and Tajikistan. However, the birthplace of the apricot is China. It was in the Celestial began to cultivate apricot trees in order to obtain with delicious and fragrant fruits.

Dried apricots at home: a recipe with a photo of dried fruit

Drying apricots at home can be in many ways. Someone does this with the help of an oven, someone uses a dehydrator, and someone prefers to perform this process in the sun. In any case, whichever way you choose, such an apricot harvest will necessarily turn out delicious and useful, especially in winter.

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

• Fresh apricots - about 3 kg;
• Cold drinking water - 4 cups;
• Lemon juice freshly squeezed - 1 cup.

Product selection

Before implementing the recipe for cooking dried apricots at home, apricots should be selected correctly. Fruits should be ripe. However, when buying them, make sure that they are not too soft or, conversely, rigid.

Product Processing

To prepare homemade dried apricots, all the apricots must be cleaned of the existing peduncles, and then put in a colander and alternately wash in hot water. Then the products should be dried with paper towels and make a circular incision. Turning the halves of fruit in different directions, they separate and take out the drupe. After that, the apricots are laid in a deep bowl and poured with water, which is mixed with freshly squeezed lemon juice. If you are too lazy to go to the store for such sour fruit, then instead of it you can use ordinary citric acid.

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

Dry the fruit in the dehydrator

The recipe for dried apricots at home is often realized through a device such as a dehydrator. Half of the apricots spread on the mesh device slices 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 more fleshy products, then keep them in the dehydrator for too long should not. If you want to get a wrinkled and dry dried apricots, then its preparation 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 keep the dried apricots in their proper form for a long time. Therefore, the methods of storing it must be known to all the mistresses who like to harvest dried fruits for the winter on their own.

Experienced culinary experts say that this product is best preserved in a tissue bag, which is placed in a dry and dark room. Although some housewives prefer to put the dried apricots in cans or a plastic bag. In this case, it is better to keep the products in a refrigerator. If you do this at room temperature, then, most likely, dried fruits become moldy and become unfit for consumption.

The drying process in the oven

Above we have told you about how dried apricots are dried in a dehydrator. The recipe for making such dried fruit can also be realized in the oven. After all, not all housewives have the mentioned device. To do this, it is necessary to carry out all the same actions that were described above. In other words, apricots are carefully processed, washed, cut into halves, soaked in lemon water and dried on a towel.

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

In this situation, the products are sent to the oven, where they are kept for 4-5 hours. At the same time, it is necessary to observe a temperature regime of 100-130 degrees. Apricots must dry, become wrinkled and get a more saturated color.

Sushi products in the sun

Experienced cooks argue that apricots are able to preserve the maximum of useful substances, if they are not subjected to heat treatment, and dried in the hot sun. But not everyone has such an opportunity. After all, in urban conditions it is quite difficult to make a tasty and useful dried apricots with the use of sunlight. If you live in an ecologically clean region, where the hot weather prevails in the summer, then this method is quite possible. To do this, you will need to process the apricots, clean them from the bones, wash, soak in lemon water and dry. Next, half the fruit is required to lay out on a large and level surface (for example, on a baking tray, cutting board and the like), which is pre-covered with food or plain paper. In this case, it is necessary to make sure that the sections of apricots are looked up.

After all the fruits have been laid out properly, they put them in the sun. It is desirable to observe that the apricots were in a draft or in a well-ventilated place.

If you are afraid that your dried apricot will be covered with dust or will be susceptible to insect attacks, then it should be covered with gauze or covered with a mesh box that passes well both sunlight and air, but does not allow dirt and flies to get inside.

Let's sum up the results

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