Dehydrator Fun

This morning I set out to make Oh She Glows' Carrot Loaf. I was thinking about how healthy this loaf seems utilizing only maple syrup for the sugar. I got to wondering if I could replace the sugar with something less processed or more whole. I thought dates might be nice but would probably completely mess with the texture. I ended up following the recipe exactly (except I had no walnuts and so I used pecans instead), but this got me thinking about dates and how they could be used to make a sugar substitute. I have seen date sugar but it is pretty expensive. My solution? Dehydrator and either a food processor or a coffee grinder. Here's the before:

I'll get back to you with the after in about 8-12 hours. Or tomorrow.

And since I had the dehydrator out and on anyway....

Mango and banana

And an apple.

A Bit of a Let Down

I ended up pausing the dehydrating last night so that I could go to bed.  I resumed this morning with much anticipation but was a little disappointed at how hot the dehydrator seemed to be running.  Last night I watched a Good Eats video on youtube about dehydrating an Alton Brown said that it should take about 24 - 48 hours to dehydrate fruits at a temperature of 115 - 120 degrees.  I know that for food to be considered "raw" it is not supposed to get above 118 degrees.  This dehydrator said apples would take 6 hours and bananas 12.  I decided to finally put my old meat thermometer (from my pre vegan days) to use and see how hot this thing was actually running.

 

Over 150 degrees!  I don't believe this is really dehydrating.  I think it is cooking at a very low temperature.  I still have bananas and kiwis in there but I have now taken the apples out.  They turned out decent.

 

 I am going to let the bananas and kiwis finish and then I think I am probably done with my adventures into dehydrator land for now.  Over the summer I might like to experiment with using the sun and glass to dehydrate.  For now I am happy to stick to fresh fruit in a city where I am lucky enough to get local produce year round.

Dehydrator Love

After expressing my appreciation for the dehydrated bananas my friend Lacie gave me this week, she offered to let me borrow her dehydrator.  I didn't realize that meant she would be bringing it to me today!  I was caught quite unprepared for having this piece of equipment in my kitchen.   Luckily I knew right where to look for some inspiration.  Green and Crunchy makes some delicious looking fruit in her dehydrator and I broke down and bought some fruit to try my hand at dehydrating.  And by some fruit I mean that I used my newly aquired Costco card to buy enough food to feed an army. 

The apples are actually from the farmer's market which makes it just slightly worse that I went to two different places to get this haul.  Even worse than that is that this isn't all I bought.  I got a huge thing of pistachios that come in a reusable container, dates for potential dehydrated cookies and boca burgers that are specifically vegan!  I had no idea Costco carried these, or that they even existed. 

But back to the dehydrating.  So this is the beautiful dehydrator:

 

It runs a little loud which was sort of disappointing and  runs quite a bit warmer than I expected it to but I am excited to experiment.

Here is what is (un)cooking away in it as I speak type:

 

Plain sliced kiwis

 

 Cinnamon coated apples

 

 Half a tray of plain bananas and half a tray of my attempt to recreate Green and Crunchy's yummy flax/cocoa/agave bananas.  I coated the bananas in a little honey and then poured on the ground flax and cocoa powder.  They were a little sticky but I think they will turn out fantastic.

I didn't plan very well and started them at about 7pm which means I may be in for a long night.  Luckily the thought of dehydrated yumminess is enough to keep me going for quite a few more hours.  Look forward to more dehydrator posts as my current plan is to dehydrate all weekend.  Muahahaha.