These easy OVEN DRIED STRAWBERRIES are the perfect way to preserve those sweet summer strawberries!
One of my favorite things about summertime is all of the fruits and berries that come into season. Not only are they sweet & ripe, but since they are also plentiful so you can usually pick them up for a pretty good price too. Though I am pretty much a huge fan of all the summertime fruits and berries, I think that I most look forward to strawberry season each summer. I can usually pick up a pint of strawberries at my local grocery store for under $2 then. Lately, I have been bringing home two pints during my weekly grocery shopping trips- one to whirl into creamy smoothies & to fold into no-bake desserts and another just to oven dry.
So why oven-dry your strawberries at home versus just picking up a bag of dried strawberries at the store? For starters, it is MUCH cheaper to make your own dried strawberries at home. Have you seen the prices on a tiny bag of store-bought strawberries?? Another reason is that I know exactly what is going into my dried strawberries when I make them at home. Most often, store-bought dried strawberries contain a bunch of unpronounceable preservatives and unnecessary added sugar. There is just one drawback to these homemade dried strawberries that I am sharing with you all today- they won’t last as long as conventional store-bought ones since we have nixed the preservatives and chemicals in this recipe. But that shouldn’t be a problem seeing as how these Oven Dried Strawberries rarely last more than a few days in my house. 😉
Snack on these oven-dried strawberries as is, add them to your favorite granola or trail mix or throw them into a bowl of cereal or over yogurt.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries hulled & sliced
- 1-2 tbsp of sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the strawberry slices on the prepared baking sheet being sure to not crowd them. You will want the air to be able to flow easily between the strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired. (Note- Taste the strawberries when slicing them. If they are already pretty sweet, the sugar won't be necessary.)
- Place the strawberry slices in the oven & let them bake & dry for 2 hours. Take them out of the oven, flip them and then bake an additional 2-3 hours or until sufficiently dried.
- Allow to cool completely, and then transfer to an airtight container. Since there are no preservatives in these dried strawberries, they are best consumed within 5 days.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
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Denise says
Certainly will try. I want to add more strawberries to my strawberry cake and buttercream without using jello. Thank you
geet says
Nice post! thanks for sharing
Judy Helms says
I put them in the oven for 2 hours and they were still not dried. One more hour. Another 30 minutes . Took them out and they are still wet to the touch. They are totally disgusting . To expensive to try. Two lbs of strawberries for the garbage .
Aubrey Cota says
Total cook time on these are up to 5 hours. First side is 2 and them flip them over and place back in the oven for an additional 2-3 hours. It sounds like you may have over crowded the pan, might have been better to do them in two batches. I’m sorry that it didn’t work out as well as you hoped, but I promise they are totally worth it!!
Becky says
How big is that serving with 57 calories?
How do you store them
Would you freeze these or just freeze fresh?
Thanks!
Aubrey Cota says
Approximately 40 grams or 1/3 cup.
Annie-Pier Pelletier says
Can we do the same recipe with other fruits ?
Aubrey Cota says
It would depend on the fruit as each one is different with a different water content. You could certainly start off with the fundamentals that this recipe provides and adjust accordingly for whichever you choose.