Food Dehydrating

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by John Brunner, Aug 31, 2020.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    15,724
    Likes Received:
    30,273
    I think that I just dumped it all in the blender, and then poured it onto those plastic sheets that are for making fruit leather. You can add spices, too. I think that I had apples with cinnamon and cloves, and it was delicious. The yogurt gives it a nicer texture and adds to the flavor, as well as it is healthy unless you are using the sweetened yogurt, which is loaded with sugar.
     
    #16
    Maggie Rose and John Brunner like this.
  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    At some point I started eating ice cream after dinner. I had it every single night (which is why I do Fudgesicles now...to impose Portion Control.)

    I switched to yogurt for a while in part to cut back on the amount of sugar I was eating. But regular vanilla yogurt has as much sugar in it as ice cream does. The "fruit-on-the-bottom" stuff is even worse, because the "fruit" is really nothing but jelly and jam. You can only avoid the sugar by eating plain unflavored yogurt, and that's just too acidic for my tastes. The best I could do was mix plain with vanilla, 50/50.

    I was just browsing a video on this subject. I assume that your dehydrated yogurt came out brittle and not like a pliable store-bought rollup. It had to; otherwise, it was not dehydrated.
     
    #17
  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    15,724
    Likes Received:
    30,273
    Mine was pliable and easily rolled up. I used to make it for my granddaughter when she was little. I rolled them in wax paper, and she would unroll and nibble it like candy. The texture was somewhat like a soft, thin, tootsie roll.

    Here is a recipe, and it is called fruit leather. If you search for yogurt fruit leather, there are more recipes, but this gives you the basic idea of making it.

    https://www.superhealthykids.com/recipes/fruity-yogurt-fruit-leather/
     
    #18
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2020
    Maggie Rose and John Brunner like this.
  4. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    Thank you for that. It's more comprehensive than what I've been looking at.
     
    #19
    Yvonne Smith likes this.
  5. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2018
    Messages:
    21,988
    Likes Received:
    46,902
    "The Cheesiest!"

    10155620_571772522938104_5382455558799584788_n.jpg
     
    #20
    Maggie Rose and John Brunner like this.
  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    These are dehydrated blobs of blueberry yogurt, straight out of the carton with no modification:

    Blueberry yogurt.jpg

    The white spots are where little holes opened up, and the white teflon paper is showing through. I think that holes opened up because I put the trays in the middle slots of the dehydrator so the fan would blow directly across them. Perhaps that's what caused this.

    Most instructions say to leave these in 4-6 hours. I did 9 hours because they were still tacky at 6. One vid left them in overnight to make hard little yogurt candy discs (no holes opened up in those.) At 9 hours, these are like taffy. They're pretty good, but flavored yogurt has a lot of sugar in it, so it's gonna be better than naked dried fruit for that reason. I threw them back in to see if I can get candy discs.

    I bought a 32 oz. container of plain whole milk yogurt that I strained the whey out of overnight to know that I have real Greek yogurt (and not yogurt + corn starch.) Gonna mix that with blended peaches and cinnamon/nutmeg. We'll see how that works.

    In the meantime, seedless grapes were on sale, so I just put some in there for 24 hours (or longer, as everything else has gone) to make raisins. No real prep work, just wash and try to balance them on the trays.
     
    #21
    Kate Ellery likes this.
  7. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2018
    Messages:
    21,988
    Likes Received:
    46,902
    Ooooh, taffy. That reminded me that when I was a kid, my mother made something called "syrup candy." I don't know how she made it, but it required being pulled like taffy and we loved it.
     
    #22
    Maggie Rose and John Brunner like this.
  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    Interesting.

    Of all the stuff my mother cooked, the only thing I recall her making along the lines of candy were flat circular pastel colored mints (think "NECCO" but thicker.) I believe she did these for weddings.

    Regarding these yogurt things, I can see eating them instead of my late night cookies. But I doubt that I'd be eating any less sugar. I'll have to play with the plain yogurt and fruit. One of the vids I watched recommended dates as a sweetener. I seriously wonder if half these people ever try the recipes they post.
     
    #23
  9. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2018
    Messages:
    21,988
    Likes Received:
    46,902
    My mother made divinity. OMG, how I loved that stuff. She also made marshmallows that were to die for. Hmmmm. Maybe I should look up some marshmallow recipes.
     
    #24
  10. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    I remember Divinity.

    I also recall seeing a video or a cooking show where they made their own marshmallows. As much as I love to over-complicated cooking, I've never been tempted to try making those.
     
    #25
  11. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2018
    Messages:
    21,988
    Likes Received:
    46,902
    I recall that the weather had to be just right for candy making, especially divinity. Apparently it is very sensitive to humidity or something.
     
    #26
    John Brunner likes this.
  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    Could be the impact on our mother's moods ;)
     
    #27
    Beth Gallagher likes this.
  13. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    Now I got my smart comment out of my system, I went and looked. Apparently candy making is done best on days of low humidity. It reaches a temperature when cooling where it might start taking on moisture rather than continuing to dry out if the humidity is too high.

    So what about places live Virginia, that tend to be humid most of the summer?
     
    #28
  14. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2018
    Messages:
    21,988
    Likes Received:
    46,902
    Beats me. Seems like my mother made candy in the fall and winter, though. I "assumed" it was holiday-inspired but maybe just a weather thing.
     
    #29
    John Brunner likes this.
  15. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    25,171
    Likes Received:
    36,922
    Since we've gone this far down the rabbit hole, and I refuse to walk away from a dangling subject--no matter how valueless or obscure--I bring you a Better Homes and Garden blurb on the subject:

    I would die for some 35% humidity:

    Humidity.jpg

    As an aside, my desktop hygrometer says the humidity in my living room is at 37% right now.
     
    #30
    Maggie Rose likes this.

Share This Page