What are dried apricots made from? How to dry apricots for dried apricots and dried fruits at home? At what temperature should you dry apricots? Dried apricots from the store

Dried apricots are dried apricot halves; dried apricots retain all the beneficial substances contained in apricots.
We will prepare a delicious version of dried apricots - candied fruits. Candied fruits are fruits boiled in sugar syrup and then dried. Candied fruits and dried apricots are often used in cooking, as a filling in butter, muffin, shortbread and yeast dough. Or as a separate decorative element for decorating cookies, cakes and pies.
There are quite a few methods for preparing dried apricots at home, but the essence is about the same. Today we are happy to share with you a recipe for candied apricots in sugar syrup.

Recipe number 1. Candied apricots in the oven

Ingredients

  • Apricots (not soft) - 1 kg.,
  • Sugar - 1.2 kg.,
  • Water - 300 g.

How to cook dried apricots at home

We begin the preparation of candied apricots with the preparation of fruits. Prepare a sieve and a plate in order to wash them. Wash each fruit thoroughly under cold running water. Send to dry in a sieve.


When the fruits dry out and all the water drains, we will begin to remove the stones and divide the apricots into halves. The more evenly we do this, the more beautiful candied fruits we will end up with.


Prepare syrup for candied apricots. To do this, dissolve in 300 ml. hot water 1.3 kg of granulated sugar.


Bring the syrup to a boil and stir with a spatula until the sugar crystals are completely dissolved.

Put the prepared apricot halves in a colander and place in boiling water for 1-2 seconds. Then we lower it into cold water and recline it on a sieve so that most of the water is glass for 1-2 minutes. After that, the apricots are placed in boiling sugar syrup. Cook apricots for about 15 minutes at a low boil. Remove from heat and keep in this state for about 10 hours. The second stage of cooking will be the same (15 minutes) and again we keep the fruits in syrup within 10 hours. At the third cooking, bring the syrup to a boil of 107-108 degrees (bulbs are coming). Then pour the fruits into a sieve or colander. Let all the syrup drain. Let's set them aside for 1.5-2 hours.

And then lay the soaked fruits on a baking sheet separately from each other, in one layer, as shown in the figure. We dry it in an oven or oven at a temperature not higher than 40-50 degrees (in modern ovens there is a low temperature regime). If you don’t have such an oven, then dry it in the sun, for example, on the balcony or on the windowsill.


If desired, slightly dried fruits can be sprinkled with sugar. Dry them to the end. Then put them in boxes lined with parchment paper.


Delicious homemade apricot dried apricots are ready, bon appetit.

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Recipe number 2. Candied apricots (sun option)

The word "candied fruit" comes from the Polish "cukier", which translates as "sugar". Today they are popular all over the world, but their homeland is the Ancient East, which for a long time carefully kept the secret of preparing candied fruits. Candied fruits are widely used in cooking. They are used as a filling for pastries, used to decorate desserts, and even added to pilaf and stews. Especially tasty are candied fruits from apricots, candied fruits are prepared both in the oven and in the sun, this option is in the sun.

Products:
For 1 kg of apricots - 1.2 kg of granulated sugar, 200 ml of water.

How to prepare candied fruit:

Only unripe fruits are suitable for sugaring. They should be greenish around the stalk and along the longitudinal groove. Such apricots will retain their shape well and remain dense after repeated heat treatment. The fruits should be healthy and not very large. They should be thoroughly rinsed under running cool water and allowed to dry.


Divide the apricots into two halves. The bones must be separated. In the future, they can be cleaned, dried and used in the same way as nuts.


Plunge apricots for 3 minutes in boiling water, and then in ice water. So you can immediately reject too soft fruits, and the rest will better retain elasticity and not burst during cooking.


Pour granulated sugar into a large basin. It should take no more than half the capacity, since when candied fruits are cooked, a lot of foam is formed and fruit juice is released. In addition, apricots should float freely in the syrup so as not to wrinkle.


Pour sugar over water and put on medium heat. Stirring constantly so that the sugar does not burn, bring the syrup to a boil. Remove foam from the surface and continue to collect it as it appears. Wait until the syrup becomes transparent and pour blanched apricots into it. After five minutes of boiling, the fruits must be removed from the fire.


Halves of apricots must be carefully fished out with a slotted spoon and transferred to a colander. You don’t need to take a lot of fruits at once, otherwise they will wrinkle. After the syrup drains from the first batch of apricots, arrange them on a tray, and put new fruits in a colander.


When all the apricots are laid out, put them in the sun.


After a day, the fruits must again be immersed in boiling syrup for 5 minutes, dried in a colander and laid out on a tray. After another day, the apricots should be completely boiled down. This will require them to boil for 15 minutes. After that, the fruits should be left under the sun for 4-5 days. Periodically they need to be turned over, allowing them to dry completely. Ready dried fruits stop sticking to your hands and become covered with a matte crust.


Pitted candied apricots should be stored in a hermetically sealed container at a temperature not exceeding 20 degrees.

Alexander Gushchin

I can't vouch for the taste, but it will be hot :)

Content

Every housewife needs to know how to make dried apricots at home in order to provide the family with vitamins for the winter. You can dry apricots in different ways: in the oven, in an electric dryer, put in the sun. How to do everything right so that the fetus does not lose its beneficial properties and micronutrients?

How to choose and prepare apricots for drying

You can dry ripe fruits of cultivated varieties, but not overripe. They should be firm, not rotten or damaged. Before drying dried apricots, thoroughly rinse the fruits under cold running water, remove the stalks from them. Then cut each piece in half and remove the bones. Those with bones will be called apricots. Many housewives know how to properly dry apricots at home so that they acquire an orange-golden color. To do this, it is recommended to follow several rules:

  1. Sand with sulfur. Put the fruits, cut in half, on a grid or grate (in one layer) with the pulp on top and put everything in a closed wooden box. After that, put cotton swabs treated with sulfur on the bottom of the box, set fire to them. In time, sanding takes from 2 to 6 hours. In order to process 1 kg of product at home, you need 2 g of sulfur.
  2. Pour over boiling water and steam. This method is much easier. First, use a colander: hold the fruit over a pot of boiling water (10-15 minutes), then place them in boiling, slightly sweetened water for 1-2 minutes. Lay it out on a paper towel or paper towel and pat dry.
  3. Hold in lemon solution. To prepare 1 liter of solution, you need 1 tsp. citric acid. Pour the chopped slices with a solution for 10 minutes, then leave to dry.

What utensils do you need

Before drying apricots at home, prepare the dishes that will be needed in the process:

  • sieve or colander;
  • pan;
  • paper towels or paper;
  • electric dryer (if you make dried fruits mechanically);
  • metal grid and fabric (when drying naturally);
  • knife for product preparation;
  • dishes.

How to make dried fruits from apricots at home

You can dry apricots in different ways: in an electric dryer, in an oven, simply by exposing them to the sun. How are dried apricots of different colors made? It all depends on the processing before the process, for example:

  1. To get light-colored dried fruits, first put them in a colander and hold them over a saucepan in which water is boiling, but not more than 10 minutes. Another option would be to pour halves of fruit with pre-brewed saturated syrup. Then you need to put the fruits on a dish, letting them dry.
  2. Orange-golden color is achieved by sanding with sulfur. This must be done before drying the apricots at home.

Drying apricots in an electric dryer

A big plus of the dehydrator is that you can put several different types of fruits into it, and then just lay out the fully prepared ones one by one. If you have an electric dryer, make dried fruits at home step by step:

  1. Prepare the fruits, remove the seeds, cut each fruit.
  2. Lay the slices on the dehydrator grate so that they are cut down, literally a couple of millimeters apart.
  3. Set the temperature to 55-60 degrees, leave for 20-40 minutes.
  4. The process of drying large fruits lasts at least 30-40 minutes.
  5. Everyone determines the readiness of dried fruits for themselves: you should not keep too long if you like juicy and meaty products. For those who prefer dry and wrinkled dried apricots, it is recommended to withstand a little more than the allotted time.

Dried pitted apricot in the sun

Cooking dried apricots at home in a natural way is simple:

  1. Arrange the halves on a metal grill, after covering it with a cloth, flesh side up.
  2. Put it for 3-4 hours in a place where the wind gets well.
  3. After that, you need to expose the grate to the sun.
  4. At night, fruit must be brought into the room.
  5. Drying lasts up to two weeks, it all depends on weather conditions.

How to make dried apricots at home in the oven

A large number of ripe fruits will not be lost from any housewife. Provided that she knows how to cook dried apricots at home. A tasty and healthy delicacy is not very difficult to make - you can also dry it in the oven, following certain rules:

  1. Rinse and remove pits from fruits.
  2. Arrange on a wire rack in a single layer so that they do not touch each other.
  3. It is better to cover the grate with a cotton cloth.
  4. The drying temperature is between 60 and 70 degrees.
  5. The fruits dry evenly if they are periodically mixed.
  6. When there is a lot of harvest, use several grates at once. Lay them out so that the distance between them is at least 7 cm.

When dried apricots dry out a little, it must be transferred to a baking sheet. It needs to be placed a little higher, covered with paper. The fruits during drying must be mixed. Dried fruits are considered ready if no moisture is released when pressed, they are elastic to the touch. Drying in the oven takes no more than 12 hours. Sometimes dried apricots turn out to be of different humidity, but this is normal when drying at home. Moisture equalization is achieved on the condition that dried fruits lie down in a dry place for some time.

How to store

It is necessary not only to comply with all the conditions on how to properly dry apricots at home, but also to know how to save them. Preserving prepared stocks is best done by wrapping them in gauze. Hang dried apricots around the room so that they are suspended. The air temperature should not exceed 10 degrees. The presence of moisture is undesirable, so you should choose a well-ventilated room.

If it is not possible to comply with such storage conditions, place dried fruits in a paper or plastic bag, tray, box or jar. The main requirement is good tightness of the container or packaging, this will prevent the apricots from absorbing moisture and any odors. Proper storage of dried fruits is a guarantee that the whole family will always receive many useful substances that apricots have.

Video recipes: how to dry apricots for dried apricots

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Dried apricots are called dried apricots and are one of the most common dried fruits. In order to make dried apricots from apricots, you need to dry them in special places for a long time - about a week.
Drying is done in the sun. For 1 kg of dried apricots there are 3-4 kg of apricots. The color of dried apricots should be light. If dried apricots darken when dried, then this is the result of exposure to moisture.

You can learn more about dried apricots: the benefits and harms for the body on our website. If dried apricots, which are sold in the store, do not inspire confidence in their composition, then it is easy to cook apricot dried apricots at home.

Dried apricots at home in the dryer

  • 1 kg hard apricots
  • 1 kg of sugar (for 1 liter of syrup)

Wash apricots and remove pits. Dissolve 1 kg of sugar in 1 liter of boiling water. Apricots must be boiled in sugar syrup, otherwise they will turn brown, and so they retain their color (although they will not be as bright as store-bought ones) and will be sweeter. Dip the apricot halves into the syrup and boil for 5-10 minutes. We leave them in this syrup for a day.

After a day, take out the apricots and let the syrup drain. This cannot be done in a colander or sieve. Since apricots at this stage are very tender and can spread from one movement. There is such a way: carefully spread our apricots along the edge of the plate. After the juice from the apricots has stopped draining, you can start drying. Can be dried in a dryer (many buy it primarily for apricots).

We spread the halves of apricots on the dryer grates in one layer, it is best if they do not even touch each other. We put the filled grates in the dryer, close and set the temperature. We dry first at 50 g, and then dry it at 45 g. In time, it will take approximately 10-15 hours. it’s just that some will be ready after 10 hours, while others will still have to dry.

You can determine the degree of readiness of dried apricots like this: soft-elastic and not sticky to the touch.

From the original 2.5 kg of apricots, you will get about 0.5 kg of dried apricots. Store them in a glass jar with an airtight lid in the refrigerator. The syrup in which the apricots were boiled can be boiled again and closed in jars. In winter, it will be possible to breed and drink fruit drinks.

If there is no dryer, then you can do everything with improvised means. Whoever has a dacha, they dry it in the sun on baking sheets, however, it will take several days, and there may also be various troubles in the form of flies or birds, or just rain.


Dried apricots at home in the oven.

You can dry dried apricots at home in the oven: spread out on a grid or baking sheet and dry first at a temperature of 50 g, then 65 g and dry at a temperature of 60 g. The oven must be open at the same time.

We will describe in detail the recipe for preparing such dried fruit below.

General information

Before presenting a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home, you should tell what kind of product it is, what properties it has.

Dried apricots, apricots and kaisa - many people believe that these words are synonymous. But it's not. These products have only one thing in common - the raw material in the form of an apricot.

Dried apricots are called dried fruits with a stone, dried apricots are dried in cut form, and kaisa is a whole fruit from which the stone has been removed.

A step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home should be known to all housewives. After all, when dried, the apricot retains almost all the useful properties. That is why such a product is an invaluable source of trace elements and vitamins.

Today, the production of dried apricots is widespread in Turkey and Tajikistan. However, the birthplace of the apricot is China. It was in the Celestial Empire that they began to cultivate in order to obtain tasty and fragrant fruits.

Dried apricots at home: a recipe with a photo of dried fruit

There are many ways to dry apricots at home. Some do it in the oven, some use a dehydrator, and some prefer to do it in the sun. In any case, no matter which method you choose, such an apricot preparation will definitely turn out to be tasty and healthy, especially in winter.

So how to make dried apricots? The recipe for dried fruit requires the use of the following set of ingredients:

  • fresh apricots - about 3 kg;
  • cold drinking water - 4 cups;
  • freshly squeezed lemon juice - 1 cup.

Product selection

Before implementing the recipe for making dried apricots at home, apricots should be chosen correctly. Fruit must be ripe. However, when buying them, make sure that they are not too soft or, conversely, hard.

Product processing

To prepare homemade dried apricots, all apricots must be peeled from the existing stalks, and then put in a colander and washed in hot water one by one. Next, the products should be dried with paper towels and a circular incision should be made. Turning the halves of the fruit in different directions, they are separated and the drupe is taken out. After that, the apricots are laid out in a deep bowl and poured with water, which is pre-mixed with freshly squeezed lemon juice. If you are too lazy to go to the store for such a sour fruit, then you can use regular citric acid instead.

In this form, the fresh product is kept for about half an hour, and then again placed on paper or waffle towels. After a few minutes, you can start drying the apricots.

Dry fruit in a dehydrator

The recipe for dried apricots at home is very often implemented through a device such as a dehydrator. Halves of apricots are laid out on the grid of the device with slices down. In this form, the product is left at 55-60 degrees for 20-40 minutes. The degree of drying of apricots depends on your desire. If you like meatier products, then you should not keep them in the dehydrator for too long. If you want to get wrinkled and dry dried apricots, then its cooking time should be more than 30-40 minutes.

How and where to store?

Now you know how dried apricots are prepared at home. The recipe with a photo of this dried fruit was presented above. However, this information is not enough to keep dried apricots in the proper form for a long time. Therefore, all housewives who love to harvest dried fruits for the winter on their own must know how to store it.

Experienced chefs say that such a product is best preserved in a cloth bag, which is placed in a dry and dark room. Although some housewives prefer to put ready-made dried apricots in jars or in this case, it is better to store the products in a refrigerator. If you do this at room temperature, then, most likely, dried fruits will become moldy and become unusable.

Oven drying process

Above, we told you about how homemade dried apricots are dried in a dehydrator. The recipe for making such dried fruit can also be implemented in the oven. After all, not all housewives have the mentioned device. To do this, follow the same steps as described above. In other words, the apricots are carefully processed, washed, cut in half, soaked in lemon water and dried on a towel.

After the described actions, the fruit halves are laid out on a baking sheet, which is pre-covered with parchment paper. In this case, the slice of apricots should be on top.

In this position, the products are sent to the oven, where they are kept for 4-5 hours. At the same time, the temperature regime of 100-130 degrees must be observed. Apricots should dry out, become wrinkled and take on a richer color.

Drying items in the sun

Experienced chefs say that apricots are able to retain a maximum of useful substances if they are not subjected to heat treatment, but dried in the hot sun. But not everyone has this opportunity. Indeed, in urban conditions it is quite difficult to make tasty and healthy dried apricots using sunlight. If you live in an ecologically clean region where hot weather prevails in summer, then this method is quite possible to implement. To do this, you will need to process the apricots, peel them, wash them, soak them in lemon water and dry them. Next, the halves of the fruit need to be laid out on a large and even surface (for example, on a baking sheet, cutting board, etc.), which is pre-covered with food or plain paper. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that the slices of apricots look up.

After all the fruits have been laid out properly, they are placed in the sun. In this case, it is desirable to ensure that the apricots were in a draft or in a well-ventilated place.

If you are afraid that your dried apricots will be covered with dust or be susceptible to insect attacks, then it should be covered with gauze or closed with some kind of mesh box that allows both sunlight and air to pass through well, but does not allow dirt and flies to get inside.

Summing up

Having presented a step-by-step recipe for dried apricots at home, you just have to make a choice. Using the described methods of drying apricots, you are sure to get a tasty and healthy product that can be used for completely different purposes. Someone makes various desserts, pies and pies from dried apricots, someone cooks compotes from it, and someone even uses it just like that, instead of sweets.

apricots like many, sweet and very tasty fruits. Ripe apricots have a delicate and delicate aroma.

For the winter from apricot make various preparations: jam, jams, juices, compotes, dried.

Let's take a closer look how to dry apricots at home, the benefits of dried apricots, devices and appliances for drying.

Ways to dry apricot

The most useful are dried apricots, they contain more vitamins than rolled in jars.

You can dry apricots with or without a stone. Pitted apricots, cut in half - called dried apricots. If the apricot is whole, and the stone was removed through the stalk, then this is kaisa.

In shops and markets they sell bright yellow dried apricots with an attractive appearance. Homemade, dried apricots don't have this look. All due to the fact that dried apricots on the market, during drying, are fumigated with sulfur dioxide, so the fruits do not darken.

To dry apricots, prepare ripe, fully ripe fruits without external damage and worms in the middle.

Wash the fruits in water, divide in half and remove the seeds.

So that your dried apricots do not darken during the drying process, you need to lower the apricot halves for 10 minutes in a solution with citric acid.

Let's prepare the solution: 1 tsp citric acid dissolved in a liter of water. Instead of acid, you can use lemon juice.

After 10 minutes, remove the apricots from the solution, place on a wire rack to drain the water.

Then arrange the apricots, cut side up, on the racks so that the fruits do not touch each other.

Apricots are properly dried in the hot sun for 3-4 days. After that, the apricots are laid more tightly on the grate and dried in the shade. The place must be well ventilated.

Properly dried apricots will be yellow-orange in color, not overdried. To get 1 kg of homemade dried apricots, you will need about 4 kg of ripe apricots.

You can dry apricots with a stone, so a maximum of vitamins and nutrients will be preserved. Dried apricots with pits are called apricots. In the hot sun, apricots are dried for 7 days, then transferred to a shade, well-ventilated place and dried.

Dried apricots useful for pregnant women and children, thanks to it the heart muscle functions normally.

Dried apricots are used in the preparation of compotes, cut into cubes in yogurt, dried apricots are used to prepare healthy and tasty fruit soups.

Also, an oven is used to dry apricots. The prepared apricot halves are placed on a baking sheet or grate covered with parchment, the temperature in the oven at the beginning of drying and at the end is 50-60 degrees, and after 1-2 hours (middle of drying) it is set at 70-80 degrees.

Somewhere in the middle of drying, open the oven slightly (or open for 10-20 minutes during drying several times), and turn the apricots over so that moisture evaporates freely.

During the entire drying period, you can turn over several times, the apricots will dry evenly, you can also take breaks of 1 hour, the moisture is evenly distributed, then continue drying.

At drying apricots in the oven do not allow high temperature, otherwise the fruit may burn.

In this way of drying, after 4-5 hours, dried apricots will be ready, the fruits become elastic, dry and no juice is released when pressed.

Drying apricots in an electric dryer

For drying apricots, household appliances are also used - special dryers for fruits and vegetables. Follow the instructions for the device and after 10-12 hours the dried apricots will be ready.

Video - Dried apricots at home - an easy way

Store dried apricots in bags of dense fabric, suspended. Dried apricots are also well stored in wooden jars in a cool and dry room. Qualitatively dried dried apricots are stored up to 2 years.

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