Dehydrating cranberries.

[juliebove]

Just wondering what I am doing wrong. When I made the faux Sahale snacks I didn't use organic berries. I used only one package of those, 4 cups of pecans, some orange juice, orange zest, black pepper and a syrup made of dates and water. I let everything soak for about 20 minutes then dehdrated. I don't remember how many hours it was in the dehydrator but if memory serves it was less than a full day.

Now I am trying to do plain, organic, unsweetened berries. I did quite a lot of them and they've been in the dehydrator for 4 days now. I picked out about a handful that are fully dehydrated. There's another handful close to being fully dehydrated. Perhaps another handful starting to wrinkle a tiny bit. But most of them are just looking up at me all warm and plump.

Could it be the soaking or the sweetener that caused them to dehydrate more quickly the first time? The fact that I used fewer of them? Although I did use quite a few trays this time around to allow plenty of space between them. Could it be because they are organic? Maybe all the rain we've had? Or maybe it just usually takes this long to dehydrate them. Mostly they were at 115 degrees although I had it up to 135 for the first two hours. I've since turned it up to 120 in the hopes that will help.

Thanks!

[Sheryl]

The skin of berries like that is very thick and good at keeping water in. I would suggest that you lightly chop them all in the food processor. They will probably dry overnight.

Cheers,
Sheryl

[juliebove]

The skin of berries like that is very thick and good at keeping water in. I would suggest that you lightly chop them all in the food processor. They will probably dry overnight.

Cheers,
Sheryl

Aha. Maybe I'll pierce them then. I don't want them chopped.

[juliebove]

Ah doh! I'm wondering now if perhaps I didn't cut them in half when I made that first recipe. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind I can recall little seeds smiling up at me.

This time I just poked them with the tip of a small knife. But then I discovered that most of them responded quite nicely to a quick whack with the back of a spoon. I only had to go back and poke a stubborn few.

Oddly, the dried berries are not chewy like raisins but crispy. Good though.

[Sheryl]

I think it's probably the lower sugar content. The soft dried cranberries you can get are soaked in glucose syrup first!

[juliebove]

I meant the ones I dehydrated the first time. But then I did soak them in date syrup. I would have bought dried unsweetened ones but I've only seen them online and they want so much money for them, I decided to make my own.

[RowanC]

I just did the same thing! I tried to dry some organic cranberries. Two day later they still looked the same.

Ok.. I guess the thing to do next time is to either pierce each berry or just spend a little time cutting them in half before putting them in the agave and drying.

DUHHHHhhhhhh :rolleyes:

[Sheryl]

Maybe just give them a quick pulse in the food processor.

[juliebove]

Maybe just give them a quick pulse in the food processor.

That would have worked too. I just wanted somewhat whole berries for snacking. On the plus side, the whole berries I did do came out nice and crisp like chips. They're still fairly round and puffed full of air. Not chewy like raisins but they are refreshingly good!