Fruits & Vegetables - Preserving the Harvest

How to Dehydrate Apples for Storage

Drying Apples
Drying Apples
Apple slices loaded in the dehydrater and ready to go.

Dehydrate Apples for Easy Storage

Sometimes we have more apples from our Azure Standard order or from a friend’s tree than I can use all at once. I like to make homemade applesauce and old-fashioned applesauce cake, plus I also enjoy slicing them up to dehydrate apples for winter.

You can dehydrate any variety of apples but I like sweet-tart types with a bit of tang to them for the tastiest dried apples. Whatever apples you have on hand should be fine for drying to store.

Apples

How to Dehydrate Apples

  • Peel apples and cut into thin slices
  • Place apple slices in water with lemon juice (1 cup water to 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
  • Drain apple slices and arrange them on the dehydrator trays
  • Add trays to the dehydrator and turn the temperature to 115 Fahrenheit
  • Dehydrate the apple slices until they are dry but supple
  • Place dried apples in a plastic storage bag and add an oxygen absorber or silica gel packet to the bag to improve storage life
  • Check the apple slices in the plastic bags after 24 hours for moisture and return the slices to the dehydrator if there is condensation in the bag
  • Check your bags of dehydrated apples often for signs of moisture or mold
  • Store dehydrated apples in the freezer or refrigerator for the longest storage life

Drying apples is pretty easy, although it can be messy and time-consuming. I used my apple corer and peeler (#ad) to help process my fruit. It makes very quick work of this part of the job. However, if you really want your apples completely peeled, they either need to be perfectly shaped or you’ll be peeling a bit by hand. The apples come out in a long spiral slice that I broke into smaller pieces to lay flat on the trays. You may also peel your fruit with a hand peeler (#ad) or leave the peel on if you like it.

I used to fit as many slices as I could on each tray, but I don’t worry so much about that now. I think they dry faster when they aren’t packed in like sardines. I set the temperature to 115 degrees Fahrenheit and let the dehydrator run for about 24 hours, checking the apple slices after about 12 hours and then again every 3 or 4 hours. I didn’t treat the apples with sulfur, so the finished product may turn a little bit brown but we don’t mind that.

I always unplug the dehydrator when I go to bed or if I will be away for a while to reduce fire hazards. Mine is an older Nesco model that is no longer made, so I don’t want to take chances. It took two days (approximately 24 hours total after turning the dehydrator on and off) to finish drying the apple slices. You can sprinkle them with cinnamon and/or sugar before drying them if you like. I felt that the apples were sweet enough on their own.

I like having multiple methods of preserving food for the winter. Dehydrating is a nice way to save fruits, veggies, and herbs for later. If dried until crispy, most fruits will be shelf-stable for a year or more. When dehydrating vegetables, you may need to blanch them first to kill the naturally occurring enzymes in the food. Fruit does not need to be blanched before dehydrating.

Do you dehydrate fruits, veggies, and herbs? What would you do with a windfall of apples to preserve them?

19 Comments on “How to Dehydrate Apples for Storage

  1. I really love my Excalibur dehydrator–it’s been a great tool for this canning-averse wife of an avid gardener. I do lots of apples, but tomatoes are my favorite. Back to the apples–just today i soaked about a cup of dried apples in about 1/4 cup of rum, then put them in a saucepan with a couple of teaspoons of butter and cooked them down gently to cook off most of the alcohol but retain the rum flavor. I had to add a little water to keep from scorching, and the result was a wonderful “apple pie filling” compote (I avoid added sugar).

    1. That sounds delicious, Cindy! I will have to try that. 🙂 I have a bottle of rum that I bought for a recipe and I never use it. Good for you for avoiding sugar. I know I should cut back on it for our health. I’ve experimented with honey in place of sugar for baked goods and I like it, but we don’t have our own bees and we go through it so quickly!

      This apple pie filling compote would smell wonderful simmering away on our woodstove this week!

      Thanks for sharing my Maple Syrup Candy and Jack Wax post on your newsletter! For folks who are interested in pioneer life, here is a link to Cindy’s newsletter and blog…

      https://www.rosettebook.com/

  2. That sounds delish, Rebecca! I still have some of them in my crisper and they are holding up quite well there! I have been hoping to make apple bread…maybe later this week. Thanks so much for stopping back and sharing 🙂

  3. Did you try to cook with the Ginger Gold apples? I ended up getting two boxes from Azure as well, and I wonder if it is worth trying apple pie or sauce.

    1. Hi Rebecca,
      I haven’t tried that. I do have about a dozen of them left in the crisper in the fridge, so I could try it. I guess I only dehydrated 16 pounds of them, after all! I think they would be good cooked with some lemon juice. 🙂

      1. The ginger gold apples were good cooked. My mom thought to add rhubarb to an apple cobbler and the result was good, so good in fact that I did not get any 🙂 My kids ate most of the rest of them fresh.

  4. I’ve dehydrated fruit for 2 years now, and have never used sulfur and never had a problem with anything going off. I also used lemon juice the first year, to stop discolouration, didn’t use it the second year, and can’t say I’ve really noticed much difference in the colour. Certainly not enough difference to be bothered faffing about with lemon juice! I leave the skins on the apples I’m dehydrating, and they’re still fine.

    1. Thanks for sharing, Donna! I used lemon juice a few times, but haven’t been using it lately. We don’t mind the skins either. I haven’t had any issues with the dried fruit going bad, but we like it a little chewy and I’m concerned that the moisture level could cause mold, so I didn’t want to take any chances after buying the fruit and spending the time preserving it. 😉

  5. I just finish canning 53pints and 24 quarts of applesauce. Very tart apple. Hoping to get some pears and will can as pear sauce and dehydrate some as well. I just add fresh lemon juice to jars, and will drop each slice to be dehydrated into a bowl the lemon juice.

    1. You’ve been busy! Good for you 🙂 It will all taste so good this winter. The wild apple trees across the road from us seem to have some pretty good fruit this year, so I might be able to make some sauce too.

      Thanks for sharing your method!

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