T.T.: Low-Tech Apple Drying

I suspect this is another one of those posts (like the one about canning bull meat) that will have a very small audience who can actually put it into practice. I mean, unless there are lots of people who live in a very dry place and have an apple tree that produces multitudes of small green apples that are only good for eating fresh or drying.

If that's you, it's your lucky day!

So, when I say only good for eating fresh or drying, I really mean it. These apples--which come from a mature tree next to the casita--are small, green, and dry. In flavor, they resemble something like a Granny Smith. But their texture is nothing like that. They really can't be baked. They just don't get soft. They can be boiled in water and will get sort of soft eventually, but they also get kind of waterlogged and tasteless.

That means anything like applesauce or apple crisps or whatever is definitely out.

However! They are perfect for drying. Because of their low water content, they don't have as much moisture to get rid of as a typical apple. And drying intensifies their flavor. I think they're better dried than fresh.

Lucky for us, we live in a perfect climate for air drying. Strong sun, wind, and low humidity mean that the entire outdoors is a dehydrator most days. All I have to do is prep the apples and get them out there. Over the past two years, I've figured out the fastest way to do this with the least amount of equipment and labor necessary.

Here's how I do it.

I peel the apples first. It's not strictly necessary, but I find the peels to be unpleasantly chewy after they're dried, so even though it makes for a lot more work, I peel them. Because these apples are quite small, I just use my paring knife. Vegetable peelers might work for large apples, but they don't work on small ones.

Small apples are also quite difficult to core without breaking them. So I don't core them. Instead, I just cut thin slices around all four sides of the apple, stopping when I get to the core.

It looks like this:

It may leave a small amount more apple on the core than if the apple had actually been cored, but it's a lot faster to do it this way.

I lay the slices out in a single layer on my baking pans. 

Small children can help with this, but be advised that they will eat as they go, so more apples will be required.

As you can see, these apples definitely discolor quickly. I could add lemon juice or Fruit Fresh or something to them to keep them white, but since I don't care if my dried apples are brown, I don't bother.

I have two half-sheet pans and one slightly smaller pan. I can fill all three pans in about half an hour.

After the pans are all ready, I bring them outside and arrange them on the hood of the car.

Out of reach of children, chickens, and dogs.

Why the hood of a car? Well, besides the aforementioned reason of keeping the drying apples safe from marauding animals and small humans, the car is always in the sun. Also, the dark color of the Honda increases the temperature under the pans.

You can see that I cover the pans. I do this because flies would be ALL OVER them if I didn't. You can sterilize the apples after they're dried by putting them in a low oven for a certain amount of time, but there would still be little black spots all over them from the flies. I find this highly unappetizing, so I cover the pans.

I use a length of muslin the MiL sent me, because that's what I have. Cheesecloth is better--thinner, with tiny holes for air flow--but I didn't have any. I use clothespins to clip the cloth to the pans, otherwise the wind will blow the cloth up at some point and then the flies are an issue again.

On a really warm, dry day--above 90 degrees--these will dry completely in about twelve hours. Most days this time of year are not that warm, so they get mostly dry in one day, then I bring them in overnight to keep the night moisture off of them, then put them back out for a few hours in the morning. 

Because they shrink as they dry, the next morning I can combine the almost-dry apples in one pan and re-fill the other pans with fresh apple slices. I do this every day that we have good weather. 

When they're all the way dry, they're flexible and bendy, with no moisture left in them. Like fruit leather, but in slices.

The finished product next to the original form.

A full batch of the three pans will almost fill a quart jar with apple slices. If they're all the way dry, they can just be put in a jar with a lid and stuck in the pantry. They will last indefinitely that way. Except not in our house, because we eat them very quickly. They're so good, and so easy to grab.

This is not something I would do if I were buying apples, but since I have all these free apples literally just lying on the ground and I have to find some way of preserving them, I spend a couple of weeks every fall drying apples.

There you have it! The next time you find yourself with a load of free apples that will not get soft when cooked and the autumn sun is glaring down on you, you know what to do.