Whether you have your own strawberry bed, know where there is a great pick-your-own farm, or just buy a couple of flats of strawberries in the store, you'll want to reserve a few from your jam- making, and dry them. They are just delicious!
Drying Strawberries
- Pick well-ripened, but still firm, berries.
- Slice in 1/8-1/4 inch slices, depending on preference. I like mine about 1/4 inch thick.
- No pretreatment is necessary.
- Place slices, not touching, on trays, and dehydrate at 125-135 degrees.
- It will take about 12-18 hours to dehydrate the strawberries, and you should rotate the trays every 4 hours, so they will dry evenly.
- The berries will be hard when completely dry.
Honey-Dipped Strawberries
Follow steps as above, only after slicing the berries, dip them in the following solution, removing them with a slotted spoon, and then placing on the dehydrator trays:
Dissolve 1 cup granulated sugar in 3 cups very hot water. Stir until dissolved and then add 1-1 ½ cups honey.
This solution works well with any fruit-try it with bananas or peaches!
How are you going to use the dried strawberries?
- They are delicious eaten alone.
- Add them to homemade granola.
- Chop them and add to muffins.
- Reconstitute them and zap them in your blender for an instant Strawberry Sauce.
- Use your imagination!
If you have questions, please post to the discussion area, or join our Preservers egroup at http://members.aol.com/preservers/group.... , where you will meet a lot of very helpful canners.....both experienced and not-so-experienced. And look for tasty recipes in which to use your garden produce in the other topic areas at www.suite101.com .
If you are always looking for new how-to's about canning, freezing, and dehydrating, and want to try new recipes, check out Home Food Preservers Magazine at http://members.aol.com/preservers/index.... Be sure to check this site for information on our newest publication, The Preserving Cook, a newsletter dedicated to cooking with what you've put up. It will be filled with oodles and oodles of good recipes for using all those goodies that you've canned, frozen and dehydrated.
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