Drying Apples
My sister dropped off a bag of Cortlands with a request to dry them (since I had borrowed my friend Sandy’s commercial dryer). The book said 150F for 2-3 hours but there was a note on the dryer in her handwriting that said “fruit 140F”, so that’s what I did. After two hours I flipped them all over and then came back an hour later. They were still softer than I had expected so I waited another half hour before I shut off the heater and let them cool. I bagged the whole lot and popped it in the fridge for safe keeping until Meaghan could come and test them for doneness (she made me some last year in her oven).
I went out and got an apple peeler/slicer from Sandy’s store. They had two models – clamp and suction. After a quick phone call (because I knew Meaghan’s mother in law has one and she’s used it), I got the suction model. Super awesome! Seriously – where has this been all my life!!! Discard the peel, slide the sliced apple of the core and cut across to separate the pieces (it looks like a slinky otherwise), trim any bruised spots and toss the core and any failed pieces into a slow simmering to increase the pectin of your sauce.
