Zeus and I have been heating things up but

[Conscious Midwife]

Zeus( my dehydrator) and I have been heating things up in the kitchen but I've got a few questions:

What can be done to prevent fruit leather from sticking when you are ready to flip?

Does wax paper work in the dehydrator? I need to make bigger batches of more crackers and fruit leathers but don't want to wait until I get more PAraflex in the mail.

Does anyone here pretreat/ pre soak their fruits? If so what RAW ingredients do you use? I did bananas the taste was fine but I didn't get them to complete store bought crunchiness and they browned a bit.

Do you peel you kiwi before dehydrating?

Shelf life outside of fridge for dehydrated veggies that you want to use as crunchy snacks or rehydrate later for soup???

Can one consume too much flax seed?
I love, absolutely love my flax crackers.

Can Alissa's Raw oats be used with raisins to make a cookie?

Thanks FAM for you input:D

[Stina]

Hey, I heard store-bought banana chips are crunchy 'cause they're fried! Also heard parchment paper recommended. You and Zeus have a good time.

[Mishka]

Zeus...eh? lol...cute pet name...you two must be close.;)

Ok,

I've never had a problem with peeling the fruit off, but I use teflex. Maybe grease it with raw coconut butter?

When I've made dried banana slices, they were chewy, not crispy. Maybe they get harder if they are in for a long long long time. Dino banana chips maybe? lol!

Kiwi, I peel them first then slice.

I use an exaclibur with teflex, but have heard many on this forum say they use parchment or saran wrap also.

Yes , you can make cookies with the raw oats from Alissa. Go look at the raw choc. chip cookie dough recipe,(the recipe is on this site) that called for it. You can play with that recipe till you get it how you want for Oatmeal raisen :)

Don't know about shelf life. We eat things quickly here..but with the garden producing soon..that's an excellent question. I bet if you have one of those airtight machines, they would really last quite awhile.

Flax seed...well how is your colon doing? I'd think that is your best indicator:p . The seeds themselves don't digest well and should come thru, but your assimilation of ground flax should be better. I personally can't have too much otherwise my system starts literally talking back to me. And my husband has issues with that too...can't blame him! lol!

Hope this helps..
Mishka

[NFrawRUNNER]

I use my food processor to blend overripe bananas and flax meal (sometimes adding things like coconut and or nutmeg, cinnamon, etc...) and dehydrate them on my sheets (they have a lip/edge to them so no "drippage")...When they are ready you can peel them away from the sheets and dry them a bit more on the other side. My sheets are round with a whole in the middle as they are meant for the circular dehydrators but I like them because I cut the fruit leather like a pizza and then FREEZE them and when frozen they are sweet and crunchy like peanut brittle. I use about 8 pureed bananas per sheet and make 8 "pizza slices" so I know each piece is = to one banana and they are sooooo good! I have even made "ice cream sandwiches" with them with banana ice cream in the middle! Yummmm!

I don't use recipe books much except to get inspired but concoct all kinds of fun things on my own! Enjoy!

[Conscious Midwife]

Thanks for the very helpful responses.

Zeus is chillin now, I'll get him all warm again in the morning:D

[Veganforlife]

...I'll get him all warm again in the morning...
TMI! TMI!!! TMI!!!!!

[Conscious Midwife]

...I'll get him all warm again in the morning...
TMI! TMI!!! TMI!!!!!
;)


Does anyone here pretreat/ pre soak their fruits? If so what RAW ingredients do you use?

[Tropigal]

I have never flipped my fruit leather.....just dry til done!
I make them thin like fruit roll ups,takes about 5-6 hours.

[Conscious Midwife]

I have never flipped my fruit leather.....just dry til done!
I make them thin like fruit roll ups,takes about 5-6 hours.

Mine ended up thin but when I poured them they seemed a bit thick. I'll go for a thinner version, like fruit roll ups. Haven't seen those in a long time but I'll give it a shot tonight.

AGAIN THANKS EVERYONE!!!

I'm taking notes and open to more feedback.

[Beckla]

I have a round, cheapo dehydrator (his name is Drake ;) ) - I use saran wrap!

[raeannasun]

I never thought about making fruit leather on my excalibur - I used to have the round one with the lip on it for making fruit leather but I gave it to my mom - will the puree leak out of the teflex in the excalibur? I know the trays in the excalibur have a little "lip" but I'm thinking the puree would seep out of the sides. I guess I could just line the bottom of it with saran wrap and then put my teflex on.

[Conscious Midwife]

I never thought about making fruit leather on my excalibur - I used to have the round one with the lip on it for making fruit leather but I gave it to my mom - will the puree leak out of the teflex in the excalibur? I know the trays in the excalibur have a little "lip" but I'm thinking the puree would seep out of the sides. I guess I could just line the bottom of it with saran wrap and then put my teflex on.

No leakage here, I just made the mix thick with strawberries and bananas pureed together. Poued in the center and spread with a spatula.

Gonna do several trays of bananas today to ship to my daughter who is away at college. Will aslo do a fruit leather and maybe some sort of cookie.

[hippiechick704]

I was curious about using wax paper too...

[Conscious Midwife]

I was neglectful, didn't use Zeus at all yesterday

Guess I'll go into the kitchen and experiment with some cookie recipies and fruit leather so that I'll have a stash of sweet treats for the weekend.

[Maria]

I cut up bananas directly on my mesh screen (Excalibur) and the banana chips come out soft with a bit of crunch. No need to flip. They do darken a bit. Taste of heaven!! :)

[Conscious Midwife]

Dipped banana slice is Agave before dehydrated got them half way done but pulled hem out to do some crackers, nut burgers???, and eggplant.


Next week my only dehydrator focus will be CHEESESCAKE, and Raw CORN CHIPS for my guacomole

otherwise I need to focus on increased water intake and raw variety plus ork on sorting through plastic dishes and pots that I don't need,a nd placing them in the yard sale so that I can make soem more $$$ and order some more RAW goods:D

[Elizabeth]

Dipped banana slice is Agave before dehydrated got them half way done but pulled hem out to do some crackers, nut burgers???, and eggplant.


Next week my only dehydrator focus will be CHEESESCAKE, and Raw CORN CHIPS for my guacomole

otherwise I need to focus on increased water intake and raw variety plus ork on sorting through plastic dishes and pots that I don't need,a nd placing them in the yard sale so that I can make soem more $$$ and order some more RAW goods:D

You are so cute...:D and I love that you are enjoying your dehydrator so much!! Thank you for sharing your raw adventures! ;)

[Ertarox]

I make awesome oatmeal raisin cookies with oats, raisins (DUUUUH - sorry), dates, walnut, almond extract and agave nectar. Mmmm!

[Conscious Midwife]

ZEUS has been wanting to experiment with oat meal too.

Hmmm are steel cut oats the same as RAW????

[Lay-Lay]

I think they are, but I couldn't say 100%.

i THINK i NEED to NAME my dehYdratOr, lol!

[Elizabeth]

I make awesome oatmeal raisin cookies with oats, raisins (DUUUUH - sorry), dates, walnut, almond extract and agave nectar. Mmmm!

I have been noshing today on some oatmeal cookies I made with oat groats, raisins, maple syrup, cinnamon, and walnuts/pecans.. YUMM!!!!:D (actually..I think I sweeetened with dates also..LOL)

[Conscious Midwife]

I think they are, but I couldn't say 100%.

i THINK i NEED to NAME my dehYdratOr, lol!


They perform better when you say there name;)

[Conscious Midwife]

Still waiting on my USPS shipment

and now I' looking thru my cabinets and i think I'm missing 2 lbs of raw cashews that I thought I purchased at Wild OAts on Sat..

When my cheesecake turns out then i kow raw for life will be a breeze. Cheese cake is my #1 favorite dessert,tied for 2nd ith lemon meringue and banana pudding pie- you know the kind with the 'nilla wafers.

Gotta get more creative. All the date and cocoa deserts don't really hit the spot for me!

[Conscious Midwife]

A
fter 16 months the honey moon is over

Haven't warmed ZEUS up in nearly two months I think

tried to loan him to
a friend
considered selling him on EBAY

but I'm no pimp

need top keep him all to myself
and get with the progrAm before Thanksgiving

[Conscious Midwife]

yeah made rawritos and broccoli cracker this past sunday for the new moon
think ZEUS and I are heating things up again:p