One of our favorite new snacks is freeze dried apples. We’ve been getting honeycrisp (4 pounds for just under $7 at Sam’s, though I am looking for a local grower because I would rather give my money to them!) and turning them into delicious snacks.
There is something magical about freeze dried apples. The texture is light and airy, and while they definitely have that concentrated apple flavor, it doesn’t punch you in the face quite as hard as the strawberries and bananas do.
In our small Harvest Right Pro I can do just about four pounds (I usually have one apple from the bag left over to eat LOL) in one batch. I go a little overboard on the extra dry time to be safe, and tend to leave them in for about 45-50 hours per batch. Each one gives me 8 or 9 mylar bags that hold about one apple’s worth of slices each, and my husband has been loving taking them to school with him!
Here I have to give a huge shout-out to Dana on our discord, who hooked me up with this magical apple slicer. Our apple slicer was not very efficient and I had actually hurt myself on it once or twice. This one cost under $20, and has a nice base and guides to keep everything on track, and it makes 16 perfect slices which are a great size for freeze drying!
Once they’re out, I have been packaging them in these pretty mylar bags which can hold just about one apple’s worth of slices. Once I have enough of a backlog for my husband to bring one to school every day for a couple months, I’ll probably start stashing them into bigger bags or large glass jars.
I have another batch of honeycrisps in right now, but my husband accidentally got 4 pounds of cosmic crisp instead of a second bag of honeycrisps, so I guess we’re going to try those next!