Photo: saitowitz / Flickr

Making dried fruit slices at home with stock syrup is easy enough to do – and with very little effort, you can make your desserts and cakes look fantastic. Properly dried fruit slices will keep for a week or so if they are stored in an airtight plastic container. You can use fruits like bananas, apples, pineapple, mangoes, pears, plums and strawberries. If you would like to try your hand at these colourful treats, then read on.

Prepare the syrup

You will need 200 grams of caster sugar, 400 ml of water and a little lemon juice to make the stock syrup. Place the water and sugar into a saucepan and heat the mixture up slowly until all the sugar has dissolved. Take the pot off the stove and allow the syrup to cool. Add some lemon juice to the syrup to prevent fruits from discolouring.

Prepare the fruit

Whatever fruit you decide on, it should be cut into very fine slices. If you are using pineapples and mangoes, peel them ‑ most other fruits won’t require any peeling but they will need to be washed. To halve and stone fruits like plums and peaches, slice through the flesh until your knife reaches the stone – then follow up by slicing the other side of the fruit.

Apples and pears should be neatly cored but this is not necessary if you’re able to finely slice the fruit. These fruits should be dipped into the sugar mixture as soon as you slice them ‑ together with other fruits that discolour quickly like bananas.

Shake the excess syrup off the fruit and place each piece on a baking tray with a silicone cooking liner. Bake in the oven at its lowest setting for two hours. You should only have to turn the fruit slices once or twice while they are baking.

When the fruit slices feel firm to the touch, lift them off the baking tray and allow the dried fruit to cool.

Tip: Use a wooden spoon to prop the oven door open to reduce the temperature if the fruit starts to brown at any stage.

Tags: fruit