Dehydrating apples or peaches

[BDraw]

Needing some guidence -- can you tell this is my first year with a dehydrator.

Do you do anything to prevent them from turning brown?

How long to dry -- crispy? chewy?

How thick do I slice them?

Thanks so much!

[Rawkinlocs]

It's really preference. I've never done anything intentionally to stop the browning, but I think you can put some lemon juice on them (though that will make them kinda tart) to help keep them from browning.

I normally like mine to be kinda chewy/leathery as opposed to crunchy, but I think that slicing thin and dehydrating longer will produce crunchy; slicing thin and not dehydrating long (just 'til all moisture is out) will produce thin, chewy and slicing thick will produce chewy unless you leave them in a LONG time.

I sometimes mix up a mixture date paste (or agave, or honey, whatever you prefer) vanilla and cinnamon and coat the apple slices in that and then dehydrate for a candy-like treat!

With peaches, I've only done that once and didn't care much for them, so really can't offer you much on drying those.

But experiment a little, slicing some thin, some thicker and drying at varying lengths of time to see what you prefer of all of them!

[jaurequi]

In the past, when I dehydrated apples or pears, they always came out chewy; this is the way they come storebought.
It would be nice to have crunchy ones, but I'm not sure if it could be done, nor if they would be desireable. It would take a long time, possibly an inappropriately high temperature, and both would probably render them void of any nutrition.

I had the same problem with zucchini several years ago: But when I cut them into very thin slivers and promptly forgot them on the dehydrator, they shriveled to ridiculously tiny pieces, yet they were great little crunchies. I used them as a crispy chow mein topping; nice as they were fatfree too :)