Saturday, August 28, 2010

End of Summer Fruit...

So my goal for the end of this summer was to pick up some local, fresh, ripe boxes of stone fruits to freeze for the coming months, as well as dehydrate them and make some fruit roll ups.... AND I DID IT! Here's some tips I learned along the way...
The thicker you layer your fruit roll ups (for use in your dehydrator) the chewier they are. They take longer to dehydrate, but they turn out really well. If you can make 3 rows/rolls at a time it makes a ton, plenty to store up for the fall and winter months.
I tried to dehydrate some peach slices, they turned out a little drier than I would have liked. Next time I think I will cut them in quarters or even halves like they sell them at Trader Joe's so that they are chewier.
This was probably the best part of my adventures.... I sliced TONS of peaches and froze them on a cookie sheet or cake pan and put them in the freezer for about 2 hours. I actually used a cake pan so that I could layer the peaches, and in between each layer I put a piece of wax paper. Once they were frozen enough, I put them in a plastic freezer bag and continued to add each batch to it. The benefit to freezing them first BEFORE putting them straight into the bag, is they don't freeze into one big clump- they freeze in individual slices.
I look forward to using these frozen peaches in smoothies, peach cobblers and de-thawed treats for the middle of winter! Stay tuned for my peach cobbler recipe, it was so simple and SOOOOO good!

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