Dried cherries: a recipe for cooking at home

Dried fruits are a real salvation for a long winter. When properly dried, they retain vitamins and minerals. They are easier to store than frozen, as they decrease in volume and do not take up space in the refrigerator. Today the subject of our conversation is dried cherry and various ways of drying it.

Preparation of berries

Go through the cherries, sort, remove the stems. Preferred shallow cherry, as it dries faster.

Rinse the berries. Boil water, adding soda at the rate of 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of liquid. Prepare a large saucepan or basin with cold water

Surrender the cherry with boiling water and soda and immediately put in cold water. Put into a colander and let the liquid drain. This procedure is called blanching. It helps soften the skin of the berries, which will speed up the drying process.

After that, you can remove the bones. This is not necessary if you plan to use berries only for cooking compotes. In other cases it is more convenient to use a cherry without pits, which can be removed with a special device, a straw for juice, a stick, a spoke, a hairpin.

Drying in the sun

Spoon the tray or baking tray with thick paper. Spread the berries on the surface. Place the tray in a sunny location. In the afternoon, let the berries dry under the rays, and at night remove the cherry under the roof.

If dried whole berries, the process will take four days. Dried cherries should be elastic, do not secrete juice when pressed and have a slightly glossy surface.

If you cut the fruits into halves, then after this time they should be placed in a preheated to 55-60 degrees oven and keep there for 10 hours. At the same time for 2-3 hours before the end of drying should increase the temperature to 70-75 degrees.

From 1 kg of fresh berries, about 200 grams of dried fruits are obtained.

Drying in the oven

If you do not want to wait for the berries to dry naturally, you can use the oven. You will get absolutely the same dried cherry. The recipe is as follows.

Prepare sugar syrup: pour 1 liter of water into the pan, wait for the boil and gradually (one spoonful) add 800 grams of sugar. Stir thoroughly until it is completely dissolved.

Set the average fire. Put the berries in water and cook for 5-8 minutes. Then catch them with a large spoon or ladle and shift to a colander. It is desirable to do this over a large clean bowl, so that the tasty cherry syrup is not lost. If there are a lot of cherries, then similarly process lots using the same water.

When the liquid is completely drained from the berries, place them on the baking sheet covered with baking sheet. Place it on the uppermost level of the oven, set the temperature to 165 degrees and keep the berries inside for 3 hours. Then reduce the temperature to 135 degrees - let them dry further. This can take from 12 hours to a day.

During drying, the oven door must always be ajar.

Drying in the dryer

The berries are prepared as described above. The subtlety is that when using the dryer, the bones will have to be removed, since the protective shell must be broken. Otherwise, hot air will not penetrate inside, and instead of dried ones you will get boiled cherries. You can simply damage (crush, cut) each berry, leaving the bones in place, but this is irrational.

In the rest the process is simple: cherries are laid out in the dryer, the middle mode is set (55-60 degrees). If the berries are laid out close to each other, then periodically they need to stir.

Cherries, dried in a dryer, should be slightly soft and sticky when prepared. If it has become firm, then you have gone too far with drying.

Dried cherries, the first way

It happens not only dried cherries, but also cherry jerky.

Prepare the cherry in the usual way. Combine sugar with water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. For 1 kilogram of cherries, you need 250 grams of sugar and 300 ml of water.

Put half the berries in the pot. When the water boils again, cover the container with a lid and cook for 7 minutes, then put the berries in a colander. Similarly, treat the remaining cherries. Remove the bones if necessary.

After the liquid drains, spread berries for drying on a baking sheet or tray. You can do this with your hands or tweezers - as you prefer. It is not necessary to apply paper or lubricate the surface.

Turn the cherries on the next day or every other day.

Dry to the degree of softness that you need. Depending on the temperature and humidity in the room, the process will take one to two weeks. If there is an opportunity to place in the sun, then faster.

From 1 kg of fresh berries you get about 300 grams of jerky.

Sun dried cherry, the second way

Prepare the cherries, put them in an enamel saucepan and sprinkle with sugar. Sugar can be taken 400-500 grams per kilogram of cherries - depending on how sweet the berries themselves are.

After that, leave the cherries for 24 hours at room temperature to extract the juice. After this time, discard the berries in a colander. Cook the sugar syrup from 300 ml of water and 300 grams of sugar. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the berries to it and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Drawn from sweet water cherries lay on a baking sheet in one layer and send to a preheated oven for 80 degrees for half an hour.

Take the berries out of the oven, and let them cool completely at room temperature. After this, carefully turn them with a wooden spatula and again send to the oven for half an hour, but already at a temperature of 70 degrees.

After the second drying, again cool the berries and repeat the "session" of drying at a temperature of 65-70 degrees for 30 minutes.

Storage of dried berries

Keep dried cherries at home Preferably in an airtight container or in a glass jar with a lid. Even better, if you pre-sterilize the cans. It is acceptable to use a cotton bag, but this will shorten the shelf life of dried fruits. Polyethylene bags should not be used, because in them the cherry will after some time be covered with mold.

You can make small tissue bags with salt and put them in a container with berries to extend the shelf life.

Make sure that the cherry is dried evenly. Dried berries should be picked and dried, otherwise pests may be created in the process, which will spoil the whole lot.

The optimum temperature is from 0 to 10 degrees, so it is preferable to place dried fruits in the refrigerator. In such conditions, the dried cherry will "live" for about a year and a half.

At room temperature, the shelf life is reduced to one year. In this case, it is better to choose the upper shelves for kitchen cabinets, since the air is drier there.

If you place the berry in a tissue bag, then let it lie as far as possible from products with a pungent smell.

During storage, especially when using a leaky container, periodically check to see if there are bugs in the berries.

The benefits and harm of dried cherries

Dried cherries, the recipe of which is very simple, not only diversifies the winter menu, but also makes it useful. It contains vitamins C, A, PP, as well as calcium, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, iron, antioxidants.

Pectins remove harmful substances from the body, improve intestinal peristalsis, and normalize metabolism.

Dried cherries are not recommended for people with chronic lung diseases and high acidity of gastric juice. When diabetes is used, it should be used in limited quantities.

So we figured out how to make and how to store dried cherries. Bon Appetit!