Strawberries are rich in nutrients and vitamins, they are used in cooking, home medicine.
In order to please themselves and loved ones with delicious berries even in winter, many people dry them. In order to preserve all the useful properties and durability of strawberries as much as possible, you need to be able to dry them properly.
Preparatory work before drying strawberries at home
The preparatory stage is the most important start of work. After all, the further fate of the berries will depend on it. Before drying strawberries, you should carefully approach the collection of berries. When the crop is harvested, it is followed by a careful selection of the best berries. Unripe, green, overripe and rotten berries should be excluded so that the whole workpiece does not deteriorate because of them. Berries with traces of blows and other damage are also not suitable. Selected fruits should be thoroughly washed under running water and remove the tails or leaves.
How to dry strawberries outdoors
It is known that dried berries retain more useful components than those that are processed into jam or jam.
There are several ways to dry strawberries: with the help of an oven, fresh air and auxiliary appliances. How to dry strawberries at home is up to you, but first, check out each of the methods.
Drying strawberries outdoors is a laborious process that requires a significant investment of time. In general - not the easiest and most convenient, but a natural way. Selected and peeled fruits must be laid out in a loose layer on a clean surface, for example, on cloth or paper. The place where they will be located should be chosen well-ventilated. The sun should get there, but in such a way that its rays are not directed directly at the berries.
When the place is chosen, you can safely leave the strawberries to dry all day until dark. With the onset of dusk, the berries are brought into the room. In the morning of the next day, the berries will need to be taken outside again and a convenient place should be chosen for them. So strawberries will dry for about 2-3 weeks. You can determine the degree of readiness of berries by their appearance. Properly dried strawberries have a rich burgundy color, shiny grains, they are easily separated from each other.
It is best to store dried berries in cloth bags. The fabric should be chosen natural so that the berry breathes. The bags themselves are placed in a dark, dry place. The shelf life of dried strawberries is 2 years. They can be consumed later if they were stored correctly, but the taste and useful properties of the fruit will begin to fade. Therefore, it is better not to delay and apply strawberries within the specified expiration date.
How to dry strawberries at home: choosing a convenient way
It is much easier and faster to dry strawberries with improvised means. How to dry strawberries at home:
1. Using the oven- This is one of the most common ways of drying berries. To do this, preheat the oven to 35 ° C. While the oven is heating, the berries are neatly laid out on a baking sheet in an even layer. Then the baking sheet must be placed in the oven and left there for approximately 1 hour. During this time, the berries will begin to dry. When the time runs out, without removing the berries from the oven, the temperature will need to be increased to 60 ° C and continue to dry them for a few more hours (2–2.5). With any method of drying, the finished berries look the same. As soon as your color becomes saturated and dark, and the berries themselves stop sticking together, then drying can be considered complete.
2. Using an air fryer- an easy way to shift responsibility to the device. For drying, a special mode is set, in which there is airflow, and the temperature reaches 45–60 ° C. By placing the harvest of berries in such a device, you can not worry about their fate and calmly go about your business. Due to the active air circulation in the air grill, the drying time of the berries is reduced several times compared to the oven. The only feature that should be taken into account when using an air grill is that the outflow of moisture is not taken into account in the machine. Be sure to provide it in any possible way, leaving the lid slightly open. Airfryer minutes is a small surface area. A large supply of berries will have to be dried in several passes. In total, it will fit in the unit, depending on its characteristics, from 0.8 to 1.2 kg of strawberries, and the output of dried berries will be 0.3–0.5 kg. Well, the pluses include the speed of work and the absence of heat from the drying process.
3. How to dry strawberries in an electric dryer. Today, you can pick up all kinds of dryers from a huge range. They may differ in cost, characteristics, principle of operation. Therefore, the drying time of strawberries can vary between 6-12 hours. But each model is individual, so it is better to familiarize yourself with the instructions for a particular unit in advance. Berries should be laid out on clean pallets so that they do not touch each other. The temperature in the dryer should be set to 50–55 °C. You will have to keep an eye on the berries in the electric dryers, checking their readiness. By the berries it will be noticeable that they are ready. Then it will be possible to transfer them to bags or glass containers and store them in the right place. Glass containers will better protect drying from pests.
To the forest for berries: how to dry strawberries for tea
To drink fragrant and healthy strawberry tea in winter, which saves you from many troubles, you need to take care of harvesting berries in a timely manner.
You should go to collect them in the summer, at the end of June, can be the whole of July depending on the climatic conditions. There are many varieties of berries, so you can find growing both in the field and in the forest. Harvest fruits should be in dry weather, it is desirable that it be warm. Early in the morning you should not go in search, as the dew will not have time to disappear.
When drying strawberries, take care of a good ventilated place. Check the berries periodically for mold. As soon as they darken and become crumbly, you can collect them in a container.
When it's time to make tea, add 1-2 tablespoons of dried berries to black or green tea for a refined taste, aroma, and immunity boost. You can diversify the drink with decoctions of strawberries, as well as the leaves of the plant.
Useful leaves: how to dry strawberries for tea
Not only fruits, but also strawberry leaves are rich in useful properties. From them, fragrant and healing tea is obtained, provided that it is properly harvested.
1. Collected strawberry leaves should be laid out in the shade and dried.
2. Each leaf is rolled into a tube between the palms so that the juice begins to stand out.
3. The finished tubes should be laid out on a baking sheet with a layer of 5 cm, covered with a slightly damp natural cloth and left in a room with a temperature of about 27 ° C for 6–8 hours. In this position, fermentation should begin.
4. When a bright berry aroma appears, it means that the chemical reaction is over. The leaves will need to be dried in the oven at 90 ° C for an hour.
5. Ready leaves are dried in the same way as berries in a cool, dry place.
Drying berries- a great way to preserve the gifts of summer, not only tasty, but also extremely healthy. This is the best alternative to freezing and canning, since the berries after drying do not contain any chemical preservatives, everything is only natural.
dried berries you can put it in yogurt or add it to a pie, cook various dishes with them, cook jelly or compote, add to cakes and pastries, decorate a dessert. For drying, they usually take blackcurrants, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and other berries.
Dried berries on special equipment - in dryers (infrared, electric dryers and others), but you can dry the berries at home - in an ordinary Russian oven, in an oven, in the sun, or in a makeshift dryer.
Wild berries must be collected already mature, clearing them of debris and twigs.
Drying berries in a Russian oven
All berries (except raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and strawberries) should be thoroughly washed in cold water. Remove all debris, rinse, then select only ripe berries, but not too soft or rotten (raspberries should be taken unripe, as ripe raspberries will turn sour). Berries damaged by insects or spoiled must be selected and discarded.
It is necessary to start drying the berries from a temperature of 35-40 ° C.
It is important that air with water vapor is quickly removed. To do this, the furnace needs supply and exhaust ventilation for air circulation. It is easy to make: put bricks in the corners of the oven and in the middle, on them - a sieve with berries. Two more bricks need to be placed under the shutter and bend its upper edge. The chimney must remain open. Thus, the air circulates, passing through the flap and the sieve, picks up wet vapors and exits back through the hole with the flap edge bent.
During the drying process, the berries should be periodically shaken and turned over.
The temperature for drying gooseberries, strawberries, currants and wild strawberries should be 40-45 ° C, for raspberries - 60-65 ° C.
dried berries store in a dry and cool place.
Drying berries in the oven
In the oven, the berries are dried, after wrapping them with gauze or cotton cloth. It is necessary to place the berries on the oven grate and maintain the temperature at 60-65? You can also put the berries on a baking sheet covered with foil. The oven door must be opened slightly to let the moisture out. During drying, it is important to ensure that the berries do not burn, dry out or stick together, stirring them with a wooden spatula. The whole drying process takes from 4 to 12 hours. From 10 kilograms of fresh berries, approximately 1-1.3 kg of dried berries are obtained.
Dried fruits can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight bag.
Drying berries in the sun
If the place where you live has a dry and warm climate, then the berries can also be dried in the sun.
To do this, you need to spread the berries on plywood (with holes for ventilation), a sieve or sieve, and cover them with a bird net. The spread out berries are first laid out in the shade so that they wither in the wind. After a certain amount of moisture has evaporated from the berries, they are transferred to the sun. It is necessary to have a canopy over the place where the berries are dried so that they can be hidden from too hot sun or rain. When they dry on one side, they need to be turned over. In general, it is important to mix the berries periodically, so they will dry evenly.
To make the drying process faster, you can put a stack of newspaper under the berries. As soon as the layer of newspapers is moistened, they must be replaced with new ones.
Rose hips are dried by stringing its fruits on a thread and hanging them in the shade. In this case, the drying process takes several weeks.
Drying berries in dryers
In production, special dryers are used, where a large number of berries are dried at a temperature not exceeding 60 ° C, so that the shell of the fruit does not tear and sugar caramelization does not occur. With this technology, 80-90% of vitamins are preserved.
The dryer can be made with your own hands from iron sheets, placing shelves inside and making holes for ventilation. Such a dryer is installed on any surface that can be heated.
Simple dryers can also be purchased at the store.
To determine if the berries are ready, it is enough to squeeze them - the fruits should not stick together or lose elasticity.
Keep dried berries can be in glass jars, paper bags, gauze and linen bags, in boxes.
Fruits and berries contain about 85-90% water. To preserve them, it is necessary to remove water so that the dried fruit contains no more than 15-20% of it.
The two most common drying methods are natural (solar-air) and artificial (thermal). Fruit is dried in the sun mainly in areas with dry, hot summers. This method is time consuming, although simple. Artificial drying is more convenient and reliable, since fruits are dried in ovens, ovens or special dryers. The rapid evaporation of water in this case depends on the total surface of the fruit, the speed of air circulation and the difference between the vapor pressure on the fruit surface and the water vapor pressure in the air stream. The rate of drying also depends on the rate of entry of intracellular water. That is why the fruits are cut into thin slices to reduce the drying time.
Drying should not be excessive, as there is a risk of impairing the taste of the finished product and the ability of dried fruit to restore its original volume, for example, when preparing compotes.
At home, you can dry fruits and berries that do not lose juice during prolonged drying - apples, pears, black currants. Cherries and plums are less suitable for drying. Quite mature and strong fruits and berries are dried. To speed up drying and prevent browning, fruits and berries should be blanched for 2-3 minutes in boiling water. Sweet cherries, cherries and plums are only scalded with boiling water.
How to choose the right drying temperature
In the initial period of drying, too high a temperature is undesirable, since overdrying of the outer layers of the product is possible, the formation of a crust, which will prevent the continuous evaporation of water and slow down drying. Therefore, it begins at a moderate temperature, gradually increasing to 60-80 ° C. Of particular importance is the correct choice of temperature in the final drying period, when the moisture evaporates very slowly and the temperature of the product rises. The drying temperature should be reduced so that the fruits and berries do not burn. The exception is stone fruits, which are dried at a low temperature, and at the end - at an elevated temperature.
In order to obtain high-quality dried fruits and berries, it is necessary to continuously ventilate the drying cabinet from the water vapor formed during drying.
How to dry fruit if there is no special dryer
If there is no special drying cabinet, drying can be done either in a combined way (in the sun and in the oven), or in the oven, oven, or on the stove. Drying in an oven or a Russian oven gives a good yield of dried fruits - up to 30-35 kg per 100 kg of fresh raw materials. It must be remembered that with this method of drying, metal baking sheets cannot be used.
To avoid steaming products, the door of the oven or oven should not be closed tightly - as it dries, it should be gradually closed. It is important to monitor the temperature, since drying is carried out sequentially in three phases 1-45-50°C (withering); 2-70°C (removal of the bulk of the water); 3 - 80°C (bringing the moisture content of the product to 20-25% and sterilizing it). The air at the end of drying should not be too dry, its relative humidity should be slightly higher than at the beginning of the drying period.
How to make your own fruit dryer
The simplest dryers can be made at home. The material for such a dryer can be roofing iron, dry thin boards, plywood. The height of the dryer is 80-100 cm, the width and length are 65-70 cm. The front wall is made in the form of a door, hung on hinges so that the cabinet can be opened to insert drying sieves. Inside the cabinet, bars 3x3 cm in diameter are nailed to the side walls, at a distance of 12-15 cm from each other. Reiki serve as skids for drying sieves. If the cabinet is made of tin, then the sieves are installed on skids attached to the side walls of the cabinet.
A cone-shaped roof is arranged in the upper part of the cabinet with a hole in the center for the exhaust pipe and damper. An iron sheet is attached to the bottom of the cabinet with a wire with gaps between it and the walls of the cabinet (5-8 cm).
Hot air passes through the gaps due to natural ventilation, and the sheet protects the lower sieve from overheating. In the lower part of the walls of the dryer, slots or holes are made for the inflow of fresh air, and on the back wall at the top and opposite the lower sieve, there are two cartridges for thermometers.
The dryer is placed above the stove on bricks laid flat, with gaps of 3-5 cm for air flow. The sieves are made from strips of canvas stretched over a frame, tinned metal mesh, and willow sanded rods. It is important to remember that the sieves must be installed alternately, pressing them against the back wall, then against the front wall and leaving a gap of 10 cm on one side or the other for the flow of hot air.
How to dry apples
For drying, the most suitable apples are sweet-sour intolerant taste, with non-watery pulp, white or light yellow in color (Antonovka ordinary, Cinnamon, Papirovka, Pepin saffron, etc.). Dried sweet apples are poorly boiled soft and tasteless.
Apples are sorted by size, washed, diseased are removed, the core and rotten places are cut out. Small fruits are cut into halves or 4 parts or dried whole. Medium and large apples are cut into slices or circles 5-7 cm thick. Apples can be peeled.
Drying of apples should be carried out at 80-85 ° C. At the end of drying, when the apples lose 23 moisture, the temperature is reduced to 50-60 ° C so that the apple slices do not burn. Duration of drying is 4-6 hours. Dried apples are cooled on sieves.
How to dry plums
Before drying, the plums are blanched for 5-20 seconds, immersed in a boiling 1 - 1.5% solution of baking soda (100-150 g of soda per 10 liters of water), and immediately washed with hot water. Dry for 24-48 hours, first at 45-50°C, after drying for 3-4 hours, the temperature is raised to 60°C, and then to 75-80°C. In order for the finished product to have a dark, shiny color, which is so valued in prunes, it is necessary to expose the plums to a higher temperature - 100 ° C and above before the end of drying. At the same time, the sugar in the pulp comes to the surface and burns (caramelizes), resulting in a shiny coating that turns white over time (like prunes).
Have you tried making dried berries for the future? Drying for fruits and vegetables at home allows you to do this without any hassle, not like the old-fashioned way by stringing.
With the help of electric drying, you can also prepare mushrooms, vegetables, roots, dried fruits by cutting them into thin chips.
Today we will dry strawberries, the recipe and step-by-step photos were sent to the Notebook by Ekaterina:
Good day everyone! For starters, I'll introduce myself. My name is Ekaterina, my mother is on maternity leave. I love spoiling my family with all sorts of different goodies.
Jam in our family somehow faded into the background, we grind the berries with sugar and freeze, but not only berries should be in the freezer. Summer has just begun, it is necessary to leave room for other fruits and vegetables. It was then that I thought about how to preserve all the aroma and vitamins of juicy strawberries and save space. What if you try drying it? The result made me very happy. The daughter eats berry chips with pleasure, and the husband makes tea.
Ingredients:
Cooking process:
I cut the thoroughly washed strawberries into 5 mm thick plates, laid them out in one layer on a vegetable dryer, set the temperature to 70 degrees and went about my business for 6 hours with a calm soul, not forgetting to swap pallets so that the berry dries evenly.
Then, with the help of a knife, she removed the already dry strawberries from the pallet and put them in a glass jar.
The husband immediately tried this miracle, dry berries in tea do not “spread” like fresh strawberries, they take exactly as much water as they need and give all their flavor. If desired, you can add a leaf of mint, lemon balm or a little thyme to strawberry tea.
Now we are waiting for the raspberry to repeat the experiment!
Make homemade preparations together with the Notebook of recipes, recipes can be selected in the section of the same name.
Drying berries- this is one of the ways to preserve the fruits for the winter. Drying must be carried out taking into account all the rules, otherwise the berries will not retain their beneficial properties.
First you need to carefully sort out the berries. Fruits with damaged pulp cannot be dried. In addition, it is necessary to discard overripe berries. Fruits with too juicy pulp (strawberries, raspberries, etc.) do not wash, otherwise they will simply “expire”. If you want to dry dense berries, such as gooseberries and cherries, then they must be washed before drying, and then dried thoroughly, spread out on a clean surface. Berries can be dried with or without pits. If you remove the seeds, then the fruits must then be allowed to drain by placing them in a colander or sieve.
Natural drying berries. The drying process can be entrusted to the wind and the sun. To do this, they need to be laid out on sheets of plywood, gratings or sieves. First, the berries need to be dried in the shade in the wind, and then taken out into the open sun. It is very important that the drying area is equipped with a canopy. During the drying process, the berries must be thoroughly mixed so that they dry evenly. To speed up the process, you can resort to such a simple method - spread the fruits on clean thick paper, under which place a stack of newspapers. As the newspapers get wet under the influence of the juice, they need to be replaced with new ones. Such types of berries as wild rose can be dried by strung on a strong thread. This type of drying will take several weeks, but in winter you can pamper yourself.
Artificial drying berries. To speed up the drying process, you can place the berries in an oven, oven or special dryer. In this case, the drying process will take 7-12 hours. Remember that each type of berry requires an individual temperature regime.
How to determine the readiness of berries? Berries can be considered fully prepared if, when squeezed in the palm of your hand, they do not secrete juice and do not stick together. In addition, the fruits should not lose their elasticity. Dried berries do not have high taste qualities.
How and where to store dried berries? Dried berries should be stored in gauze bags, hanging in a dry, well-ventilated area. Dried fruits can also be stored in closed glass jars or boxes. Cellophane, paper or linen bags are also suitable.
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