Dried Pear Slices - Lori's Cookbook
This is my entry for this week's @foodfightfriday .
Simple food is often the nicest food! When it comes to preserving food the same is true. Dehydrating surplus food is a great way to preserve it for later months without damaging it too much.
Of course, if you're anything like me, you remember how apple and pear slices would always come out really dark and unappetizing. (The taste was excellent, of course.) But what if you could keep the color nice and keep the great taste of the original fruit - without too much in the way of preservatives? Well, you can!
Here is the result of my dehydrating last August after I got a bunch of pears from the food bank. (I later did whole 10# apples the same way...)
Don't they look great? So, what's the secret? (Keep reading.)
First of all, core and slice your pears.
Here's a very old corer that my mother sent me (probably my grandmother's originally.)
And... sliced.
Next... (Here's the magic.)
I've got here a pint jug (US) full of water and 2 Tablespoons of honey per cup (so, 4 Tablespoons in all this time.)
Dip each slice in the honey water for 30-60 seconds.
Place the slices onto your dehydrator trays. (Maybe next summer I'll have time to show you how I dried things off grid... simple and expandable.)
Use the guidelines for your dehydrator. Mine is an old $10 bargain that I got at my local thrift store (and carried home on a small shopping cart that I was given.) It only goes up to 140F, so that's where it stays for everything.
Check on your slices time and again... until most of the moisture is gone, but they're still soft and chewy.
Here is what they look like at the end - all thanks to the honey water!!!
Of course, they didn't last long in the jars! But what a great way to get kids to eat more fruit!
Recipe Cards
Nice and simple today.
Two of my kitchen witches. One hung in my grandmother's kitchen as long as I can remember, so I have mine - adding a certain magickal spice to my cooking, presumably...
My grandmother's now lives in my mother's kitchen.
Previous recipes in Lori's Cookbook
(Links are for Steem... For Whaleshares and WeKu, simply place whaleshares.io or main.weku.io where the steempeak.com is.)
Holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.)
Cranana-Chumpkin Bread
Cranberry-Berry Sauce (canning too)
Cranberry Juice Drink
Breakfasts
Basic French Toast
Buttermilk Pancakes - including low-carb and grain-free options.
Easy Suppers
Dirty Mac & Cheese
Simple Cheeseburgers
Spanish Rice
Italian Meatballs
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Main Courses
Fathead Stromboli
Garlic Curry Baked Drumsticks
Drinks
Side Dishes
Turmeric Rice
Garlic-Herb Bread
Breads
Cranana-Chumpkin Bread
No-Knead Bread
Fathead Dough - a grain free substitute for many bread situations!
Snacks
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sauces
Spaghetti Sauce
Basic Salsa
Garlic-Herb Butter
Desserts
Peach Cornmeal Cobbler
Tapioca Pudding
DIY Ingredients
Canning
Rebel Canning - a general guide about what I do, and why I don't always follow USDA guidelines.
Cranberry-Berry Sauce
Cranberry Juice Drink
Meatballs and Spaghetti Sauce
Note: All photos are mine - Pentax K30.
Crossposted at Steem, Whaleshares, WeKu
Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
verified author on Goodreads
find me on Twitter
blogging on: Steem, Whaleshares, WeKu
Awesome! Looks amazingly simple, except I don't have a dehydrator. Hmm I think I have an idea of sort how to dry them nonetheless. I might do this with apples if we do get an overstock this season. Thanks for your great ideas! :)) happy weekend!
You can use your oven at the lowest temp you can manage and leave the door ajar for air flow and to keep the temp lower. Keep a close eye on it though.
Otherwise, a rack like what I've got plus a piece of glass - outside in the sun - just make sure it's ventilated and protected from rain.
I love my dehydrator. Never thought to dip fruit in honey though as I always found em sweet as. X
I should have mentioned that they weren't too sweet. The honey is the preservative and only a tiny amount in the water 1:8 is the ratio. I tried it after reading somewhere on the web about how to keep the fruit from coloring - figuring that it must be possible.
Ah, I wondered if that was the reason, but didnt finish my train of thought ..
These look really good! I really need to get a dehydrator. Between making jerky and dried fruit I think it would pay for itself really quickly.
Question is can you add more honey to make it a little sweeter so the kids eat it like it's a treat?
Yes, a dehydrator pays for itself really quickly - even if you have to buy brand new. My parents use Excalibur brand and swear by it. (They have three of them.) Jerky is so easy to make. I can't buy it because non-soy jerky is horribly expensive.
You could add more honey to the water, but dehydrating already concentrates the natural sugars. This recipe disappeared down the kids without any effort - and they don't like pears!
Looks delicious.. Ok well I know it's delicious... BUT... I think you make it look alot easier than it actually is hey😂😂🤔
lol. I don't do very much complicated cooking, actually... So, it pretty much has to be simple or I won't be doing it. (At least, not more than once.)
Thanks for visiting.
@viking-ventures, this is a great gift idea. Thanks for continuing to share Lori’s cookbook with us, the recipes just seem to get better each week.
Enjoy your weekend, chef.
Thank you! I still have a few sitting up my sleeve while I make friends with my new camera.
Thank you for getting @missaj in on this, Lori. The both of you have been a great addition to this community.
My dog absolutely loves dehydrated pears. It’s our favorite trail snack
I never even thought of a dog loving them! Awesome! (And so cheap!)
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Thanks for stopping by!
I've bookmarked this as I have a dehydrator but have not used it a lot. This looks great to try.
Awesome! I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for visiting.
Hello @viking-ventures, I love pears, I think I will see if I can borrow my cousins dehydrator again, I was thinking of doing some fruit for the holiday, much healthier snack for the kids. They love the strawberries that way, going to try pears. Thanks for the suggestion.
Have a wonderful holiday!
Yes, much healthier! And almost as tasty. (I won't deny that sugar tastes good.)
I haven't done strawberries - but then, I never have an excess of those - not here in the mountains, anyway.
Thanks for stopping by and best wishes for you too for the holiday.
Strawberries are great that way, but they are very expensive this time of year and sometimes it's hard to find organic.
Honey is a great natural preservative! Nice idea to dehydrate excess fruit - yum! We do it with mangoes here. :)
Oooo, mangoes! I especially love the little "champagne" yellow mangoes. They never make it to the dehydrator though.
Your dried pear rings look great! I Iove dried fruit but they're often so full of preservatives, not so with these!
I have to get a dehydrator still!
Thanks! And yes, you really do! :-)
I had figured that I would always be doomed to dull looking dried fruit if I didn't want the preservatives... but then I googled it and lo-and-behold! Yeah, I can approve of honey!
Thanks for stopping by.
This post has received a 3.13 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @sbi-booster.
@viking-ventures, you always come up with some very different stuff, love it.
Right on with getting the kids to eat more fruit.
Have a wonderful holiday season.
Thanks for visiting.
Yes, any way to get kids to eat more fruit and vegetables is good!
My fav snack :)
I'm glad. Thanks for stopping by!
Another awesome entry!
Merry Christmas!
Thank you. Merry Christmas to you too!
I voted for this entry.