We prepare prunes. How to make prunes at home?

Prunes are not only useful, but also delicious dried fruit. It replenishes the body with carbohydrates and vitamins. Prunes are added to many dishes, as this fruit has a very pleasant aroma and taste. However, to use it in the kitchen, you need to dry the fruit properly. In some dishes it is impossible to replace prunes. How to make it at home, read in the article.

Useful properties of prunes

This fruit is popular and very useful. Many mistresses want, but do not know how to make plums from prunes. After all, it must be used by every person. It contains many carbohydrates, fiber, pectic substances, organic acids and vitamins. Thanks to prunes, they support the gastrointestinal tract, increase hemoglobin and immunity.

Nutritionists advise it to use when losing weight. Prunes - a good laxative, so with constipation is an excellent tool. When a person has low or high blood pressure, the fruit normalizes it.

There is an opinion that if in the morning for breakfast to eat prunes with honey and nuts, working capacity increases for the whole day. Many culinary experts use it in dishes and drinks. It can be compotes, juices, meat products. For example, a baked chicken with prunes liked many housewives. With the help of dried fruit the dish turns out not only tasty, useful, but also fragrant.

How to choose plums for drying

In order to cook prunes, you need to choose the right fruit. If you do not know how to make plums from prunes, first you need to choose the right fruit. It is advisable to buy or grow for such purposes firm and juicy fruits. Ideal for drying the variety: plum, Hungarian, Renclod. However, there are many other varieties that are also suitable for drying.

Small fruits, such as plum, can be dried whole. If the fruits are larger, they should be cut in half and pulled from them bones. Then the process will accelerate.

No matter how you dry the plums, they need to be carefully sorted out. Damaged or decayed fruit is better not to use. Fruits choose almost the same, so they are simultaneously dried.

If some plums remain moist, not only they will be spoiled, but also ready. You can dry prunes in many ways. How to make it at home, read on.

How to Dry Plums in the Sun

There is an opinion that this is the simplest and most common way. Not every landlady knows how to make prunes at home, to get a real dried fruit. For its preparation you will need:

1. Gauze.
2. Plums.
3. Wooden sheets.

It is necessary to put plums on the wooden sheets, cut in half. Slip upwards. Strongly tight they should not lie - it's better to dry out. If you put the plums downwards, the juice will flow out and the dried fruits will turn out to be not juicy.

Spread fruits only when hot sunny days. Cover them with gauze to hide fruits from insects. They should be in the sun for at least a week. At night, the humidity of the air rises, so the fruit must be taken to the room.

In the process of drying, the fruit should be turned several times a day. Then they are prepared evenly. There is one disadvantage of this drying: gauze does not save fruits from insects and their larvae. The method is effective, but only in desperate situations. Many cooks recommend other methods.

Dry the plums in the oven

Many housewives want to harvest prunes for the winter. How to make it at home, if there is no possibility to spread fruit in the sun? Then there is the second way, the more effective one, the oven.

Before drying the plums, try them. This is necessary in order for small cracks to appear. The moisture will evaporate faster, so that the fruits will dry more qualitatively. Blanch the plums should not take more than 3 minutes. In boiling water, put 2 tsp. Soda, dissolve it and put the fruit in the solution. Hold for 2-3 minutes and remove. Now wipe the fruit with a towel and let it lie for 1 hour.

Such drying is carried out in several stages. Preheat the oven to 60 degrees, place the fruit there for 5 hours. Then turn off the oven, let the plums cool down. They should rest from the oven for at least 5 hours.

Then heat the oven to 70 degrees. Put the fruit for 6 hours. Now let them cool down. At the last stage, heat the oven to 80 degrees and bring it to the ready. Now you know how to make prunes at home with the oven.

Dry the fruit in the electric dryer

Try this way to cook prunes. How to make it at home, experienced housewives will prompt. Before drying, the fruits must be blanched in the same way as for the oven. In boiling water, put 2 tsp. Soda, mix. Now put plums in the solution. If you cut the fruit in half, then there is no need to blanch them.

Lay the fruits in one layer. If you have halves of plums, then put them cut up, so that the prunes remain succulent. Switch on the electric dryer by 50 degrees. Let the plums dry for no more than 4 hours. Then take out the pan with the fruits to cool.

At the second stage, put the electric dryer at 60 degrees. Now they should be dried for 5 hours. After the second stage, take out the fruit for cooling.

In the third stage, put the electric dryer at 80 degrees. Let the plums be dried for 6 hours. Do not forget that at each stage the pallets must be swapped to allow even drying. This is the final stage.

Now you have an idea of how to make prunes at home. The recipe is simple and fast. Therefore, if you do not have an electric dryer, think: most likely, it's time to buy it.

How to make smoked prunes at home

This recipe produces delicious sweet and sour dried fruits. For its preparation you will need for 1 kg of juicy plums a half kilo of sugar and 400 ml of water. Fruits should be washed, peeled and cut in half.

Now make the syrup. Water with sugar boil, reduce heat and put in the same capacity of plums. It is necessary to bring the fruit with the syrup to a boil and turn it off. Plums lay on the towel to leave the excess liquid, now put them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar.

Now you can put the plums in the oven for smoking at a temperature of 50 degrees. Do not forget to turn them to evenly dry. Prunes are prepared in 3 stages. First, put it on for 12 hours. After that, turn off the oven. They must cool down for 12 hours. So 2 more times. Smoked plums are cooked for 3 days.

Many housewives dry fruits during the day, and at night they are set aside for cooling. That's all the wisdom of cooking. It turns out a delicious smoked prune, from which you can brew compotes in winter or add dried fruits to food.