Dried Apple Rings and Wondering Why I Haven't Done This

     This bushel of apples has given me so many different things, and this is one more "first" for me. Typically I'd make one or two different things with my apples since it cuts down on the amount of work but I just couldn't make up my mind.  I also wanted to use my dehydrator again having only used it once on the onions from the garden.  So dried apples became my next little project.

    I say "little" very loosely here since most projects tend to snowball into other projects.  The first thing I realized when I got that apple onto the cutting board is I had no idea how to cut it into rings. It was peeled, but my coring tool slices at the same time.  I know that would work, but rings sounded better. 
     Then I remembered an apple machine thing that had been sitting in my kitchen in some obscure hard to reach area.  (See what I mean by snowball effect?)  My mother had bought it for me years ago.  I dug it out and did what any sane woman would do.  Yep, I bet my husband that he couldn't figure out how it worked, and well, good thing he took me up on it.  I knew it was one of those things that's easy if you could only figure it out.

The little one couldn't wait to start turning the handle, which left me with the job of supervising and delivering the apples to them. 

 

It turned out perfect apple rings that looked like they couldn't possibly have come from my kitchen.  I laid them all out onto the layers of the dehydrator, and turned it on.  I was expecting it to run all night, but they were ready in just about three hours time.  I didn't mind tasting  checking them at all to see if they were done.  I let them cool long enough for me to admire them, and threw them in a plastic container.  I'm sure a quaint jar would have been great. 

There are many things to do with dried apples, besides just eat them that is.  They can be thrown into your trail mix, added to cereals, great with oatmeal, put into any baked good such as banana apple bread, muffins or breakfast cake. 

   


 I found my dehydrator on bookoo.com and so far so good.  It isn't top of the line, but it's already proving it's worth for me.  If I find I am using this a lot more I may decide later to invest in a better one. 

   I kept this project simple, and did soak the apples in some cold water with a little lemon juice added.

Pick your Own is one I looked at which is funny since she has that apple peeler/corer/cutter and it looks like her dehydrator is similar.  My apples didn't need to dehydrate even close to what she says so I am finding there is a lot of room for variations.  It depends on your apples and the temperature.
I'm not sure if I like the car method since I'd forget about them and find them three months later.  They'd probably still be good, but maybe a bit tough.

honey sweetened dehydrated apples  This is another take on dehydrated apples

If I didn't have the dehydrator, I'd probably dry them in the oven at the lowest possible temperature with the door open slightly, maybe even turning the oven off intermittently to keep a low temperature.  The oven light will even add some heat.  That would use a bit more electricity so I'd make sure I cooked a lot more to make up for it.