Dried Fruit

Dried Fruit can be bought whole, coarsely chopped or diced. Fruits that are typically dried include apples, apricots, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, currants, dates, figs, grapes (into raisins), nectarines, peaches, pears, plums (into prunes) and sultanas.Some Dried Fruit is exposed to sulphur dioxide gas during the drying process. Many fruits already have some sulphur in them naturally, but the additional exposure helps preserves the colour of the fruit. Without it, fruit such as apples, apricots, peaches and pears will go brown, and consumers think the Dried Fruit is bad. The sulphur also has antiseptic properties that inhibit the grown of bacteria. It is not used for prunes or dark raisins, as they are meant to go dark anyway.Fruit is often sulphured, then sun dried for 3 days, then air dried inside for another 5 to 8 days.

Dried Fruit in general has a high sugar content because the sugar in it has been concentrated. In many Dried Fruits (such as plums), the sugar level is so high that the fruit will never freeze rock hard.

Dried Fruit can be used as a snack, as an additive to breakfast cereals, or for baking or cooking. Dried Fruit for snacking is now sold semi-moist. The fruit is either dried, then rehydrated a bit, or just partially dried. This has always been done to prunes, though you can also buy some that are completely dried. Semi-moist Dried Fruit is about 35% humidity; regular Dried Fruit is about 21 to 23% humidity.

Dried Fruit Mixture

The fruit in a Dried Fruit Mixture can be whole, coarsely chopped or diced. You can buy premixed bags or tubs, or make your own mixture from dried fruit. When a recipe calls for mixed fruit, it means “dried mixed fruit”, unless otherwise specified.

Sun-Dried Fruit

Sometimes sun-drying is part of a process, after which the fruit (or vegetable) is taken indoors for further air drying. Other times, the process stops there, in order to produce a Semi-Moist Dried Fruit or vegetable.

Semi-Moist Dried Fruit (Semi-Dried Fruit)

A fruit that has been dried, then rehydrated a bit, or not dried all the way, so that about 35% of its original moisture is left in it. This leaves the product still moist enough to eat without rehydration. This is sometimes done through sun-drying.

Cooking Tips

To chop smaller without them sticking to your knife, dredge the dried fruit first in a little flour from your recipe. Or use kitchen scissors to snip them.

Dried fruit is very often soaked first in a liquid to rehydrate before using in baking.

Substitutes

Any combination or single (kind) of dried fruit up to the quantity specified in your recipe.

Nutrition

Some people with asthma can have an allergic reaction to the sulphur in the dried fruit.

Equivalents

8 oz by weight of dried mixed fruit = 250 grams = 1 1/4 cups

6 pounds (2.7 kg) of fresh apricots will make 1 pound dried (450g)
4 pounds (1.8 kg) of fresh plums are needed to make 1 pound (450g) of prunes

Sources

Lee, Jeremy. Dried and gone to heaven. Manchester: The Observer. 13 February 1999.