Best Dried Fruits For Healthy Snacking

[Food4thought]

Mention dried fruits and some people can only think of raisins, or packs of mixed dried fruit that go into fruit cakes. In fact there is a whole range of healthy dried fruits you can buy for snacking. These count towards your daily requirement of fruit and veg and are far more nutritious and better for health than eating chocolate and sugar based snacks.

Dried apricot are chewy and sweet
Dried dates are sticky and sweet
Dried mango, papaya, pineapple and other exotic fruits taste great
Dried berries containing antioxidants include blueberries, black cherries, cranberries and acai berries

 

[J3NN4]

I buy the Crunchies dried strawberries, or the strawberry & banana ones. I like putting them in my cereal or just snacking on them. They're pretty expensive though.

I've seen some recipes on how to oven dry different fruits, but haven't given it a shot. Do you think it'd be possible to use a food dehydrator and get the same result?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I buy the Crunchies dried strawberries, or the strawberry & banana ones. I like putting them in my cereal or just snacking on them. They're pretty expensive though.

I've seen some recipes on how to oven dry different fruits, but haven't given it a shot. Do you think it'd be possible to use a food dehydrator and get the same result?

that is what they are for! I often use one to dehydrate fruit as a means of preserving it.

 

[Ellyn]

I enjoy dried fruit chips such as banana chips and apple chips.

Although, I would think that the best dried fruit for snacking would be the fruits with the nutrients that don't go away when dried. Water-based vitamins such as B and C might not survive the dehydration process.

 

[J3NN4]

that is what they are for! I often use one to dehydrate fruit as a means of preserving it.

We've had our dehydrator for years and the only thing it was used for was to make deer jerky... =/ So I never bothered to mess with it much. I'll definitely have to give this a try, since those packs are so expensive, and you'd get a lot more just getting some fresh strawberries. Do you need to do anything to the fruit after dehydrating it?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We've had our dehydrator for years and the only thing it was used for was to make deer jerky... =/ So I never bothered to mess with it much. I'll definitely have to give this a try, since those packs are so expensive, and you'd get a lot more just getting some fresh strawberries. Do you need to do anything to the fruit after dehydrating it?

we keep the fruit in an air tight container to prevent it absorbing any moisture form the air. We also make fruit leathers from the fruit and dry them as well, but they need the teflex sheets - though the fruit leathers are exceptionally nice and store much better (again in air tight containers).

 

[J3NN4]

we keep the fruit in an air tight container to prevent it absorbing any moisture form the air. We also make fruit leathers from the fruit and dry them as well, but they need the teflex sheets - though the fruit leathers are exceptionally nice and store much better (again in air tight containers).

Thank you! I'll definitely have to give this a try this weekend, since it's hard for me to lift the dehydrator ha. It's still on the top shelf of the pantry if that tells you how often we use it.

 

[Ellyn]

we keep the fruit in an air tight container to prevent it absorbing any moisture form the air. We also make fruit leathers from the fruit and dry them as well, but they need the teflex sheets - though the fruit leathers are exceptionally nice and store much better (again in air tight containers).

Fruit leathers sound like a magnificent idea! Looking up the recipes, they remind me of my favorite snack, haw flakes (Chinese preserved fruit flakes), but I imagine that they might be closer to fruit roll-ups depending on how much natural jelly and sugars there is in the fruit that's used?

I wonder if the fruit and vegetable fibres left over from juicers can be added...

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Fruit leathers sound like a magnificent idea! Looking up the recipes, they remind me of my favorite snack, haw flakes (Chinese preserved fruit flakes), but I imagine that they might be closer to fruit roll-ups depending on how much natural jelly and sugars there is in the fruit that's used?

I wonder if the fruit and vegetable fibres left over from juicers can be added...

Thank you! I'll definitely have to give this a try this weekend, since it's hard for me to lift the dehydrator ha. It's still on the top shelf of the pantry if that tells you how often we use it.

We were given a recipe that works really well. It is literally a cooking apple or two - cooked to a pulp, plus whatever fruit you are using all pureed together and then spread out on the teflex sheet. How much apple you need to use depends entirely on the fruit being used and how much pectin it has in it - similar to making jam/jelly. The apple gives a better texture to the fruit leather whereby without it, the fruit leather is very brittle and breaks easily: with it, it rolls and is more 'chewy' and more as expected and somehow tastes better as well.

Cooking apples are the sharp/sour ones such as Bramleys - the really large ones, but I have done the recipes with normal eating apples and it has worked out fine. As a rule I add no extra sugar and have found that none is needed. Kids love the fruit leathers.

I have made various combinations, apple & blackberry, summer fruits (with a touch of apple), raspberry & apple, nectarine & apple and I even melted some dark chocolate into one combination of apple & blackberry. Elderberry & apple was nice but less successful (it is only the pips in elderberry that are poisonous, so this is a must use a muslin cloth/jelly bag one to remove all of the pips).

For general fruit dehydrating, this is a great site (though she can 'talk' quite a bit before actually telling you what you need).
http://nouveauraw.com/raw-recipies/dried-fruits-and-vegetables/

And she also has a section dedicated to Raw Fruit Leathers (raw means no added cooking applies because you don't cook raw foods, but I like her ideas a lot as well) http://nouveauraw.com/raw-recipies/fruit-leathers/

They will at the very least give you guidance and some ideas!

 

[Indigo02]

My closest friend introduced me to dried mango and I am hooked! Though, I don't eat it too often, as the sweetness can be a little overwhelming for me after a while.

 

[Indigo02]

So I went ahead and bought the unsweetened mango slices from Trader Joe's...much better. Still sweet but not overkill.

 

[Jade]

Dried mangos and fried banana chips are my favorite dried fruits to snack on. The mangoes in particular are always very sweet since I am guessing the drying process just intensifies their flavor all the more. As for banana chips, I don't think they are very healthy because they are covered in syrup, usually, and are of course, fried, but they are still very good and I imagine it's still at least a bit healthier than potato chips.