Dehydrating Strawberries

While I have always been comfortable canning foods, dehydrating was a different story.  Up until this point in time, my experience in dehydrating put me in the intermediate category. I could proudly claim dried herbs and venison jerky, but that was as far as my dehydrating experience went.  But a recent Facebook post peaked my interest, claiming dehydrated strawberries tasted just like Twizzlers.  Over the following days I couldn’t stop thinking about and knew I had to try it.

My dehydrator is a smoke-colored Ronco brand, circa 1993, sold in one of those fabulous early 90s infomercials.  The infomercial even included a shout out for that fabulous spray on hair for bald spots.  Basically spray paint for your head.  My father-in-law gave me this dehydrator years ago, and with not really having much experience with it I just packed it away.

My husband and I were at our local grocery store this week, and they had strawberries on sale 2 lbs. for $5.  As soon as I saw them, I knew I would quickly be getting that dehydrator out of the closet and putting it to use!

First I washed the fruit very well.  You could use an all natural produce wash if you want, I just used water for mine.  You don’t need to dry them, since they’ll dry in the dehydrator anyway.  Just realize working with dry fruit is easier and less messier than working with wet fruit.  Cut the stems off of each strawberry and set them aside.  If you have chickens (or a rabbit that lives in your house) they love these strawberry tops!

While some recommend blanching your strawberries before dehydrating them.  Don’t waste your time.  It is totally unnecessary.  Also when you water-blanch you will lose water-soluable vitamins.

Laying the strawberries on their sides and slice them.  When slicing the strawberries, the slices should be as uniform in thickness as possible so that they dry evenly.  The slices should be 1/4″ for thin pieces or 3/8″ for thicker piece.  Lay the slices on the dehydrator trays in a single layer.  The end pieces should be laid with skin side down.  Make sure to place them far enough apart so they don’t touch or overlap.  You want to allow air circulation.  You should leave at least 1/4 inch space around the food pieces.

Some of the strawberry slices may be small and would easily fall through the tray as they shrink.  My dehydrator came with an insert that I can put underneath the fruit to prevent them from falling through.  If yours doesn’t have an insert, I would recommend checking the website of the manufacturer that made your food dehydrator and ordering mesh trays.

Allow the strawberries to dehydrate for 8-18 hours.  My dehydrator has a single heating element in the bottom, which means rotating the trays often is a must.  The strawberries are done when you squeeze them and there is very little “squish” left.  Since this was my first time dehydrating strawberries, it was a bit of trial and error for me.

If your slices aren’t perfectly even in thickness, as mine obviously weren’t, you may find that some strawberries dehydrate faster than others.  Just remove the ones that are finished and keep dehydrating the ones that are not.  Most of my strawberries were done in around 15 hours, but some of the bigger pieces had to go for around 24 hours.  I recommend tasting as you go until you get to your desired doneness.

When they are done, you will have dehydrated strawberries and feel pretty accomplished.  I was shocked how sweet they are.  And yes, they absolutely taste like Twizzlers!