Dried Figs
Figs! We have so many figs. Larry is picking a dozen a day, scrambling onto the roof to get half of them from the top of the tree. During an afternoon get-together, Shuchi tells us that she gets a lot of different fruits off her trees and dries them -- the sugar concentrates, and they taste like candy! She keeps them in jars on her counter and they snack on them for days. So we bought a Cuisinart dehydrator and tried it out with some figs and pears and other fruits. Figs are pretty juicy and took a lot longer to dry than the others, so we decided they were better when cut into smaller sizes, and perhaps dried by themselves - or if you do other fruits, just check the others earlier.
Place them on dehydrator shelves, skin side down so they don't stick to the shelf. We put our dehydrator on our outdoor counter because it's a bit noisy and emits heat that we don't want indoors on 90 degree days.
Dry on medium or high overnight, or for 10-12 hours. Check after 8 hours. When they're no longer juicy, remove and put in glass container. We keep ours in an open bowl in the fridge, but you could also put them in a jar on the counter and eat them over a few days - if they last that long! A little jar of dried figs also makes a fun gift.
Ingredients
Fresh figs, a dozen or moreInstructions
Figs are pretty juicy, so slice them into quarters at minimum, and into eighths if you can (i.e., they still have integrity).Place them on dehydrator shelves, skin side down so they don't stick to the shelf. We put our dehydrator on our outdoor counter because it's a bit noisy and emits heat that we don't want indoors on 90 degree days.
Dry on medium or high overnight, or for 10-12 hours. Check after 8 hours. When they're no longer juicy, remove and put in glass container. We keep ours in an open bowl in the fridge, but you could also put them in a jar on the counter and eat them over a few days - if they last that long! A little jar of dried figs also makes a fun gift.
