What To Know Before Drying Fruit In An Air Fryer
Air fryers have a knack for being extremely versatile gadgets in the kitchen. Frying is only one of the many things that you can use it for. You can bake cakes, cookies, and brownies in an air fryer or use it to roast meat (via Cooking Light). One surprising way to use an air fryer is to make it work as a dehydrator to dry fruits.
Drying fruits, also known as dehydrating, is really just removing most of the water content from the fruits by circulating hot air at a low and controlled temperature (via Go Wise Products). After dehydrating the fruit of its water content, the dried fruits can be stored for a long period of time without getting spoiled. In fact, they make for a healthy snack, too!
While some air fryers already have a dehydrator setting, you can easily use a normal air fryer to dry fruits, too. To dry fruits in an air fryer, you need to set the temperature much lower than usual, usually around 125 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and definitely no higher than 200 degrees Fahrenheit (via Kitchen Snitches).
Once you have your temperature right, there are a couple more things to keep in mind before you get started.
Make sure your fruits are evenly sliced
To make sure your fruits dehydrate evenly and quickly, it's best to slice them thinly using a fruit cutter (via Kitchen Snitches). The thinner the slices of the fruits, the quicker the fruits will dehydrate. Second, making sure your fruits are not stacked on top of each other is even more important when using an air fryer to dehydrate rather than fry. Doing so will ensure that the fruits dehydrate from all sides without soft and chewy chunks in the middle.
Once your fruits are prepped, you're ready to go. According to Food Network, two cups of sliced strawberries or tomatoes dehydrate best when left at 175 degrees Fahrenheit for four hours. One small banana dipped in lemon juice or one large apple soaked in lemon juice requires the same temperature, but dehydrates much quicker — in three hours.
You can then use your dried fruits in muffins and cakes, on top of smoothie bowls, cereals, and oatmeal, or mixed into granola and trail mix. Or, you could just munch on them as a healthier alternative to fried potato chips.