Dehydrated Strawberries

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These dehydrated strawberries are a delicious, portable snack. Dried strawberries are great to make when you have an abundance of fresh berries.

Dried fruit is a good snack to keep on hand. When your sweet tooth hits, this is a healthier alternative to candy or other processed sweets.

When you find strawberries on sale, or your garden gives you lots of berries at once, these dehydrated strawberries are a great way to preserve them. They can be made easily in the oven or dehydrator. Dried strawberries are a delicious portable snack with a great texture and flavor.

These dried berries taste best using fresh, ripe strawberries. The results will be tart if the berries aren’t very ripe.

How to Dehydrate Strawberries in the Oven

For oven dried strawberries, slice the berries about ¼ inch thick. I like to use this strawberry huller to remove the leaves and hull from the top of each strawberry. You can also cut the top off the berries if you don’t have a huller.

Place the berries in a single layer on two parchment-lined baking sheets. The slices should be uniform in thickness, but if you end up with some thicker slices, put them on the outside of the baking sheet, with thinner slices in the middle.

Cook the berries in a 175 degree oven for about 3 hours, or until most of the water is dried out. Strawberries have a lot of moisture in them, and the cook time can vary quite a bit. For crispy dried strawberry chips, you’ll need to leave them in the oven for closer to 4 hours.

This recipe calls for 1½ pounds of fresh strawberries. This quantity fits well on two baking sheets. You can use any amount of strawberries that you have on hand, though.

Dried Strawberries in a Dehydrator

To make dried strawberries using a dehydrator, place the sliced strawberries in a single layer on the dehydrator trays. Set the machine to 135 degrees, and run it for 5 to 8 hours for chewy dried strawberries, or 8 to 15 hours for crisp strawberry chips.

I use the Excalibur 5 tray dehydrator. The instruction manual for the machine says it takes 7 to 15 hours to dehydrate berries, but my batch was done in 5 hours. Keep an eye on them, and take them out when they’re done to your liking.

Regardless of how many strawberries you’re drying, keep all 5 trays in the dehydrator. The machine is designed to work with all the trays or none of the trays inserted.

Serve these dehydrated strawberries on top of granola, or eat them on their own for a healthy snack. And try my dehydrated banana chips for another healthy dried fruit recipe.

Dehydrated Strawberries

These dehydrated strawberries are an easy, healthy snack that can be made in the oven or dehydrator.

Print Recipe

Prep Time:10 mins

Cook Time:3 hrs

Total Time:3 hrs 10 mins

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs ripe strawberries, sliced (about 6 cups unsliced)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Thinly slice the strawberries about ¼ inch thick, and arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheets. The slices should be uniform in thickness, but if you end up with some thicker slices, put them on the outside of the baking sheet, with thinner slices in the middle.
• Bake the strawberries in the oven for about 3 hours, or until they’re dehydrated but not rock solid. Rotate the trays halfway through the bake time (after 1½ hours) for even dehydrating. (Alternately, dehydrate the berries in a dehydrator for 5 to 15 hours.)
• Carefully remove the strawberry chips from the baking sheets by gently peeling them off. Transfer them to a cooling rack, and let them cool completely before storing. (You may find that some of the strawberry pieces are dehydrated, while others still have quite a bit of moisture left in them. Remove the pieces that are done, and keep checking on the rest of the batch in the oven every ten minutes until they’re all ready. It may take up to an extra hour for the largest pieces to be done.)
• These dried strawberries can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for at least two weeks. If they're completed dried out, they can be stored for a long time. (Yields 1 1/3 cups)

Notes

You can lightly grease the baking sheets with oil instead of using parchment paper if you’d prefer.

Nutrition

Serving: 0.33cup | Calories: 54kcal

Servings: 4

Calories: 54kcal

Author: Annemarie Rossi

Cost: $.75 per serving

Price Breakdown

I usually buy strawberries when they’re on sale for $2 per pound. At that price, this recipe costs $3 to make, or $.75 per ⅓ cup serving. Try these dehydrated strawberries for a fun, tasty snack.

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