Yes, You Can Dry Fruit in the Oven How To Dry Fruit Without a Dehydrator. We recently scored a huge bucket of sour cherries from a local farm, and after wed made all the pies and ice creams we could stand, we decided to experiment with drying our few remaining cups. Our only problemMy kids love Healthy Dehydrated Fruit Snacks. They are easy to make and the perfect quick healthy snack for kids. You can buy dried fruit in the store, but my kids. How to Dehydrate Bananas. Dehydrating bananas is a surprisingly easy and versatile process. Sticky or crispy, healthy or greasy, chips, wedges, or fruit. Find tasty recipes for your food dehydrator including beef jerky, sweet potato chips and fruit leather roll ups. This pear fruit leather is an easytomake, lowcalorie snack that you can enjoy on the go. Click here to get the recipe. Food suggestions to help prepare the right kind of food for an overnight or extended walk on the Bibbulmun Track. No dehydrator Instead, we turned to the oven. This turned out to be remarkably simple. We turned on our oven as low as it would go about 2. We covered a few baking sheet with silpats and parchment not enough silpats to go around, and spread the fruit out in an even layer. To see if it made a difference, we tried drying some of the fruit directly on the baking sheet and another batch with the fruit suspended over the baking sheet on a wire cooling rack. Then we popped the sheets in the oven and set the clock At about the four hour mark, we started to see signs of shriveling. The fruit on the wire rack was done after about 6 hours, and the fruit on the baking sheet was done after 8 hours. By the time they were done, the cherries had shrunk to the size of raisins and turned deep purple. We left them a tad chewy, but they seemed dehydrated enough that they should keep for a few months in an air tight container. We call this experiment a success It took a good chunk of our day, but its almost entirely hands off. Drying the fruit on a rack suspended above the baking sheet definitely shaved off some time, so well go that route in the future. If we dry larger fruits like apple slices or apricots, well probably still flip them a few times for even drying. Were glad to know that we dont necessarily need a dehydrator to dry fruit. Using the oven is less energy efficient, but if were only making a few batches of dried fruit a year, we dont see the need to add another gadget to our collection. Plus, if we can find a few extra oven shelves, we can dry several batches at once. Cherry Tomato Salsa. Do you dry your own fruit How do you do it Related For Cherry Pies, Use a Cherry PitterImages Emma Christensen for the KitchnOriginally published August 1.