We have a large fruit drier, but I prefer oven dried fruit. There are contradictory instructions on drying fruit in the oven though. I don’t believe it is necessary to add sugar or seasoning, most fruits are sufficiently flavourful and sweet without flavouring. The only thing I would add to peaches and apricots is a sprinkle of Fruitfresh to keep them from oxidizing. Plums do not require it because oven drying naturally darkens the fruit. Most instructions begin with lower temperatures, “so the fruit will not burst and loose all its flavour in the catching tray” and to increase the heat to quickly finish the drying process. That's wrong. There is a fine line between dried and burned fruit and if anything the second stage of drying requires even lower temperatures than what we start out with. It will take longer, but it's worth it.
OVEN DRIED PLUMS
• Wash and pat dry plums.
• Cut in half and remove the stones.
• Lay the plums on cookie racks and place the cookie racks over rimmed baking pans.
• Place the baking pans in the oven and turn the temperature to 120F.
• Leave the fruit dry for 6-8 hours, occasionally opening oven door to let the steam escape.
I had a lot of plums; about one shelf was full of cookie racks and with catch trays underneath them. With fewer plums, the drying time would be considerably less. Of course with two oven shelves full of plums, this first stage would require more than 8 hours and even some shifting of the upper and lower trays. With a single oven rack packed up, after 8 hours there was quite a bit of plum syrup in the catch trays and the plums were still soft. This completed the first stage.
• For the next stage reduce the oven temperature to the lowest possible setting and leave the fruit for an additional 6-8 hours to finish up the drying process. [I left it to dry overnight]
• Eight hours later the second stage was over and the plums were ready to come out of the oven.
• I let the plums cool and packed them into parchment lined cookie tins. They are delicious!
