Thursday, December 4, 2008

How to Make Dried Fruit for a Jello Cake Recipe

By KC Kudra

Whether you are trying to add more fruit to your own diet or make interesting healthy meals with children in mind, making your own dried fruit can make a nice change from eating fresh fruit. You do not have to eat it alone either. You can add it to jello for an interesting touch. Dried fruit will make your jello cake recipe truly unique! Dried fruit is good for you and can help to ensure that you are getting all the natural sugars and vitamins necessary to benefit your overall health. Dried fruit can be expensive to buy so it is a good idea to dry your own fruit.

Another great idea is making dried fruit to top your jello cake recipe this is a fun way to make this decadent dessert a little healthier and a whole lot more interesting to look at. Adding dried fruit to the top and sides of your jello cake is really easy once you have the fruit and drying your own makes it a whole lot more fun and economical, get the kids to help with this one, they will love it. Take a look below for a few things to keep in mind before you start buying your apples and bananas, however!

The easiest way to make dried fruit is with a food dehydrator. This device lets you control the drying speed, temperature and everything else involved with the drying of fruit. It also means you can dry the fruit without having to use the stove which is great if you are busy using the stove for other things. Fruits such as pears and apples will dry at 135F and come out succulent and delicious.

If you want to dry your fruit the old fashioned way instead, this is also quite easy. First, choose your fruits. Bananas and apples are quite easy so these are good fruits to try if you are new to fruit drying. The first thing to do is to cut the fruit. The drying process works a lot faster if you cut your fruit into thin slices, although fruit of any shape will dry eventually.

Next, you need to prepare the fruit. Some fruits turn an unappetizing brown or black if they are exposed to the air for too long. To stop this from happening, you can soak them in various solutions to maintain their color. Honey and water, ascorbic acid or a fruit juice with a high level of citric acid can all work well. This should be done to any fruits before putting them in a food dehydrator too.

There are several ways to dry your fruit after you have prepared it. For instance, you can use a plastic needle to thread your fruit onto clean cotton thread and set up a rack in the sun. This method can take a few days, depending on juicy the fruit is. Remember to put down a cloth to catch any drips. You can also use a conventional oven. To use this method, put down some wax paper over a cookie sheet and lay the fruit slices on it, without letting them touch each other. Set the oven to about 175 degrees and let it simply cook for a while. This will take several hours but do not turn the oven up to speed the process!

Your fruit is done when you decide it is ready, so get experimenting because making dried fruit is a lot of fun and it is gorgeous when added to a jello recipe or other mouthwatering dessert. - 15359

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