Recipe: Dehydrated Pineapple

Dehydrated pineapple is one of my favorite dehydrated snacks. The natural sweetness of the fruit intensifies as the water evaporates away. My two-year old likes it as well and it's very easy to make. You can use fresh or canned pineapple for this recipe, the only difference is that the canned fruit will take longer to dehydrate because of the increased moisture content.

For Fresh Pineapple

1. Remove the skin of the fruit and remove the core. I remove the core by cutting the pineapple in four vertical wedges and then cutting out the core from each wedge.
2. Slice the pineapple in 1/4 in (~6 mm) widths.
3. Arrange pineapple slices on dehydrator making sure the pieces do not touch.
4. Dehydrate at 135° F until pliable but not tacky to the touch. Time depends on the fruit and the humidity in the house. For me it takes about seven hours.

For canned pineapple just follow steps 3 and 4. It takes about 24 hours for me to dehydrated canned pineapple. I also prefer using the canned pineapple slices and slicing them into quarters instead of the pineapple chunks.

Pineapple shrinks as it drys. I dehydrated eight large cans of pineapple chunks once and was stunned to find that once dried it all fit into two small zip-lock bags! But I find it more convenient to snack on because it can be stored out on a shelf and I can eat it on the go.

Try it and let me know what you think!