Animal, Nature, and Travel: Taste-bud Journey: Dehydrate Strawberries in Oven

During the pandemic, I am taking taste-bud journeys as I self-isolate rather than physical journeys. Here is my adapted recipe for dehydrating strawberries in the oven. It was inspired by my attempts to replicate one of my favorite snack foods -- store-bought freeze-dried strawberries which are not always available and also expensive.

One of my favorite snack foods are store-bought freeze-dried strawberries. They are not only expensive (often $4.50 to $6 per packet), you can't always find them available. In my effort to wanting to replicate this is what inspired me to try dehydrating fruit, in the first place. Two of the brands that I have purchased in the past are:

Crunchies Freeze-dried Strawberries
Simple Truth Freeze-dried Strawberries

Recipe

Sliced-up strawberries (frozen or fresh)
Half Sheet Pan Liners, 12x16 Inches, Reusable Baking Parchment Sheets, Nonstick Cookie Baking Mat, Teflon Baking Sheet for Half Sheet Baking Pan, Washable & Eco-friendly laid onto a large cookie sheet
Ziploc bag or jar to store finished product
Food-grade Oxygen Absorber packet

Please note: WARNING! WARNING! Do not use parchment paper! The first time around, I tried dehydrating some strawberries that way. Trying to peel a dehydrated strawberry free from it reminded me of those Candy Dots on Paper I used to buy as a kid. The only problem with this is that I was not able to free the badly dehydrated strawberry from the paper. This is what that failing attempt looked like afterward:

Please also note: All those strawberries ended up going in the trash! Sigh!

Procedure

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit while you are getting your strawberries sliced and laid out on your cooking trays.

Step 2: Slice your strawberries. I used an egg slicer.

Step 3: Purchased from Amazon, I lined my two large REUSABLE BAKING PARCHMENT SHEETS cookie trays with this: Half Sheet Pan Liners, 12x16 Inches, Reusable Baking Parchment Sheets, Nonstick Cookie Baking Mat, Teflon Baking Sheet for Half Sheet Baking Pan, Washable & Eco-friendly. In case you are interested, this is a link to that. It will open in a new window. REUSABLE BAKING PARCHMENT SHEETS

Step 4: Just in case, lightly spray those reusable baking parchment sheets with unflavored cooking spray before laying out the sliced strawberries on top of it.

Step 5: Once the strawberries are ready, turn the oven down to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the two cooking trays inside the oven. Set your timer for one hour.

Step 6: At the one-hour point, trade out the trays. Put the tray that was on the top rack on the bottom rack and vice versa. Set your timer for one more hour.

Step 7: At that point, your top rack tray should be ready. Set that tray off to cool completely.

Step 8: Put the tray that was on the bottom rack back up on the top rack. Turn off the oven and close the door. Let that tray cool completely inside the oven.

Step 9: Once your strawberries have had a chance to cool, store them inside a Ziploc bag or a jar with an oxygen absorber packet.

Step 10: Eat and enjoy this tasty and slightly crunchy, slightly pliant snack!

Cooking Sites that have inspired me:

Books written by Debbie Dunn:

Here is the Amazon Link to all anti-bullying curriculum books plus all children’s books written by Debbie Dunn (both paperback and Kindle). It will open up in a new window.