Do you love dehydrated apples but not the cost? Making your own is an easy and cheap alternative to store-bought dehydrated fruit.  Dehydrated apple chips are a tasty treat the whole family will love. You can also rehydrate them and use them in lots of recipes like apple pie filling or roast them with Brussels Sprouts. They also make an awesome salad topping.

How do I store dehydrated apples?

You want to store the apples in an airtight container. If I won’t be using them within 6 months, I just put them in a mason jar and store them in my pantry. For longer-term storage, I store mine in a mason jar that I seal with my food saver and jar sealer attachment, in a cool dark place. Mine go in my root cellar but any cool place that doesn’t get much light will do.

apple slices with food saver

How Long do Dehydrated apples last?

Some sources say 6 months to a year. I have had them last 18 months in sealed mason jars with oxygen absorbers.  If you store them in myler bags they can last up to 30 years. 

What kind of apples should I use?

I have seen people say that you don’t want to use apples that are better for fresh eating, that they end up kinda bland and tasteless. They say to use apples that taste good when cooked like Granny Smith, Empire, or Golden Delicious.  I personally haven’t found that to be an issue. I primarily use Honeycrisp and Fuji Apples for dehydration and find them perfectly sweet.

Prepping The Apples

I use this apple peeler to prep my apples. I don’t use the peeler part, just the corer, and slicer. It takes about 5 seconds per apple to get them perfectly and evenly sliced. You will also want a bowl with cold water and either lemon juice or citric acid.  If you use lemon juice, you must rinse them after you soak them. They will end up tasting salty if you don’t.  The ratios for each are listed below:
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice per 1 cup water
  • 2-3 tablespoons citric acid per 4 cups of water
I prefer the citric acid for a couple of reasons.  I use my lemon juice primarily for canning. You use so much less citric acid than lemon juice that it just seems like a better deal for me. Lemon juice adds up when you use it as much as I do in canning. Especially if you are using organic, which is what I do. 

How Long Do I dry the apples for and at what temperature?

I dehydrate my apple slices at 130°. There are a couple of factors that will affect your time drying.

  • How powerful your dehydrator is.
  • How warm and humid is your space where you are dehydrating.

I live in a more humid environment so it took me about 10 hours to get them completely dry. The truth is it is going to take as long as it takes. You don’t want to underdry your food. Leaving moisture will allow bacteria to grow and your food will go bad. Dehydrators do not really take up that much space, so having it out for a day or so running is not a huge deal for me. You can not really overdry dehydrated foods, with the main exception being fruit leathers, so letting it go longer is safer than pulling it off early. By letting it go longer it’s a guarantee that it will be dry. 

Tips

  • Sprinkle cinnamon on your apples before you start dehydrating them for a cinnamon apple treat. I like to do an apple pie spice blend and make apple pie chips. 
  • This recipe also works for apple rings. 
  • Grind slices in your blender to a powder to use for baking.
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