Friday, September 13, 2013

"Dried Apple Slices....."

I don't "think" I had mentioned this before (if I did, I apologize for telling you again), but I bought an apple peeler/corer/slicer made by "Progressive" International.  I LOVE this new gadget/tool!  It makes preparing the apples for drying so quick.  Everything is done all at one time, and the only steps I have to do after removing the peeled, cored, and sliced apple from it, is trim any bruises out and cut one slice vertically through the apple, which cuts the apple "coil" and gives me slices.

Either end of the apple is slid onto the 3 prongs, which hold it in place........


Once the apple is seated, the process begins......


Turn the crank and once it hits the floating peeler on the side (it accommodates different sized apples), it begins peeling.  When the apple comes in contact with the metal "O" and flat side blade (shown closer to the viewer in this photo), the core is cut and the apple sliced as the apple is peeled.  The process is complete when the 3 prong area is through the "O".



The entire apple is slid from the machine, leaving its core impaled on the 3 prongs.


Bruises are then trimmed and 1 slice vertically through the apple cuts the continuous coil of apple into slices.


It is then placed into a bowl of water which has citric acid added.  The citric acid helps keep the apples from "browning" until I have enough slices to fill my 10 dehydrator trays.


Apple slices drained, laid onto the plastic drying sheets in the dehydrator, and sprinkled with a cinnamon/sugar mixture.


The results of these 10 trays.......


I have since dried a 2nd batch of apple slices which I left plain.  They came out quite tasty, too, but I have one more experiment to try.  I think I will add some cinnamon to the citric acid bath and see how much will stick to the slices as they are removed from the water.  The apple slices definitely do not need sugar added as I did the first time.  The sugar in the apples becomes concentrated as they dry and shrink.























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