Dehydrating Apricots

Makes Fabulous Apricot Jam!

Makes Fabulous
Apricot Jam!

By dehydrating apricots when they are plentiful, you can have delicious apricot jam, apricot compote, pies, sauces ... on hand, year 'round in addition to your other dehydrated fruit!

Apricots have a lovely velvety skin, smell delicious, and are a fantastic source of vitamin A, followed by vitamin C, and vitamin E, with trace amounts of Folate, Choline, vitamin K, Niacin and vitamin B6. Apricots contain these minerals: Potassium, Phosphorus, Calcium, Magnesium, with trace amounts of Iron, Zinc, Selenium, Copper and Manganese. Apricots also have Omega-6 fatty acids.

Thankfully they are readily available frozen, so this is the easy way to create your own private stock when fresh apricots are not available!

Dehydrating Apricots ~ Fresh Apricots Need a Syrup Blanch

If using frozen apricots, ignore steps 1, 2 and 3.

First, prepare your fresh apricots by washing them, cut them in half, and remove the pits.
Next we will syrup-blanch the apricots by preparing a mixture of one cup of sugar, 1 cup of light corn syrup, and 2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil then add no more than 2 pounds of prepared fruit to the pan and simmer gently for around 10 minutes.
Let them cool in the syrup in the pan, for a good half hour. Lightly rinse with clean cold water.
Arrange the apricots on your dehydrator trays, making sure they don't overlap. If you are using an Excalibur dehydrator, you may wish to leave out alternating trays if you find that your apricot halves are too cramped in-between the trays. I find the Nesco dehydrator better suited for dehydrating apricots due to the spacing between their trays.
Turn on your food dehydrator and set the temperature between 125°F and 135°F (or per your food dehydrator's instructions).

Apricots are pliable when dried.
Drying time: between 8-16 hours.

Easy Test to Make Sure They're Dry

To make sure that your apricots are indeed dry, take a piece and cut it. The apricot should still be pliable but no juice should ooze out when squeezed.

Please remember to rotate your trays, for even drying.

The Perfect Vehicle for Apricot Jam!

As a kid my family and I used to vacation in the South of France (lucky me), and my favorite time of day was breakfast!

After getting back from the Patisserie with a huge bag of warm fresh buttery croissants, I could hardly wait to spread on the apricot jam ... it was absolute heaven! And to burn off all those calories, a quick dip or two, or three, in the blue waters of the Mediterranean was all it took to keep the waistline in check.