For yonks I’ve wanted a dehydrator, and this year I decided to spend the birthday money that my Mother gave me, on purchasing one.
Being a newbie to all things dehydrating, I opted for a budget dehydrator, as I didn’t want to waste money on something that may end up collecting dust in a cupboard.
I ordered a Digital Food Dryer & Dehydrator, which cost a penny under £40, from Amazon UK.
The dehydrator arrived the next day, but I was unable to get dehydrating because I still needed to purchase some citric acid, which I also ordered via Amazon UK.
When the citric acid finally arrived I thought I would start simple, so I dehydrated some apples.
To start the process I peeled and sliced the apples, and then left them to soak in a water and citric acid bath for 10 minutes.
I then drained the apple slices, and placed them on the trays in the dehydrator.
I put the lid on the dehydrator, set the timer to 12 hours and the temperature to 60 centigrade, and left it to do its magic over night.
The next morning I had a look at the apples. Some of the slices still seemed a bit soft, so I put the dehydrator back on for a further 2 hours, and that did the trick. The apple slices were perfectly dry and ready to eat.
My first attempt at dehydrating turned out very well, and I will be trying various other fruits, and also some savoury foods including tomatoes and mushrooms in the next few days.