This is an old family recipe from Brian's family. We dry apricots every year and make apricot leather. Brian and Aria love Monkey Ears, that is what we call them, after they are dried they kind of look like ears. Aria could eat these all day and pick them over candy. You might think that this is a little strange but you dry them outside, really! We have not ever gotten sick from eating them. I guess it is the jello that keeps the bugs away. All I have got to says is, don't knock it until you try it.
First, wash and half apricots
Next, mix a large box of jello any flavor with 4 cups of warm water; stir until dissolved. Place the halfed apricots in jell-o mixture a couple handfuls at a time and mix with hands until all sides are coated. I think this was a whole bushel of apricots. I needed to use a large box of jello and one small one to do all of these. For the small box it is 2 cups of warm water added to the jello.
Place the dipped apricots on a rack of some kind, window screen, cooling rack, anything that holes in it to let the air circulate around them and elevated off of a table or ground. My neighbor put her apricots on racks and put them to dry on her trampoline, it worked perfectly. Place the rack in direct sun, somewhere where you get the hottest sun for most of the day. You can leave them out for all the days or we do bring ours in the garage at night.
We built our own screens because my husband loves these dried apricots so much and wanted more and more each year. We have two of these size racks and Brian put wheels on them so we could move them around easily.
In about two days, you can turn them over if they like this, if the weather is perfect, dry and hot.
Turn over and let dry for a few more days.
In about 5 days or so depending on the humitiy and sun they are ready when they look something like this. They should feel dry to the touch and not squishy.
After they are all dried place them in a jar or canister and they should keep good for a year or longer.
This is an old family recipe from Brian's family. We dry apricots every year and make apricot leather. Brian and Aria love Monkey Ears, that is what we call them, after they are dried they kind of look like ears. Aria could eat these all day and pick them over candy. You might think that this is a little strange but you dry them outside, really! We have not ever gotten sick from eating them. I guess it is the jello that keeps the bugs away. All I have got to says is, don't knock it until you try it.
First, wash and half apricots
Next, mix a large box of jello any flavor with 4 cups of warm water; stir until dissolved. Place the halfed apricots in jell-o mixture a couple handfuls at a time and mix with hands until all sides are coated. I think this was a whole bushel of apricots. I needed to use a large box of jello and one small one to do all of these. For the small box it is 2 cups of warm water added to the jello.
Place the dipped apricots on a rack of some kind, window screen, cooling rack, anything that holes in it to let the air circulate around them and elevated off of a table or ground. My neighbor put her apricots on racks and put them to dry on her trampoline, it worked perfectly. Place the rack in direct sun, somewhere where you get the hottest sun for most of the day. You can leave them out for all the days or we do bring ours in the garage at night.
We built our own screens because my husband loves these dried apricots so much and wanted more and more each year. We have two of these size racks and Brian put wheels on them so we could move them around easily.
In about two days, you can turn them over if they like this, if the weather is perfect, dry and hot.
Turn over and let dry for a few more days.
In about 5 days or so depending on the humitiy and sun they are ready when they look something like this. They should feel dry to the touch and not squishy.
After they are all dried place them in a jar or canister and they should keep good for a year or longer.
2 comments:
The jello is such a cool idea. Do you think I can just dry them on my dehydrator with your recipe.
Yeah, my husband said you can do that also. They turn out a bit different, but it still works.
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