Fall is coming soon, and it’s approaching much faster than I expected this year! Even though the official first day of fall isn’t until Tuesday, I am ready for fall flavors and foods. I think the early snow we had a couple weeks ago quickly changed my gears from summer to fall earlier than expected. The weather tried skipping fall and moving right into winter! But right now the weather has been perfect, I’m just waiting for our next day of snow…
Our Summer Snow on September 11th
In honor of harvest flavors, I decided to include pumpkin spice in this month’s Recipe Redux recipe. The September Recipe Redux theme is dehydration!
Get Your Dehydrator On! Whether it’s extra garden bounty or a sale at the supermarket – dehydrating food is a budget-friendly way to stock up for later. You can use a food dehydrator, a low slow oven, or natural sunshine to preserve natural healthfulness. Show us how you like to dehydrate, or a healthy recipe for how you enjoy using dehydrated fruits, veggies or other bounty.
I don’t have a dehydrator appliance, and I resisted the urge to buy one just for this challenge, so I used the low and slow oven dehydration method. I was a little wary of doing this since my lowest oven setting is 200 degrees and I thought my pears slices would burn easily, but it worked out really well and it still took over an hour for my pear slices to dry completely, which is far from scorching.
Pear Chips
Gluten free, Paleo, Vegan; Free of: dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, cane sugar
Ingredients
- 2 pears (variety of choice), unpeeled
- Optional: ground cinnamon, or other spices
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to it’s lowest setting, or to 200 degrees F. The lowest setting on my gas oven is 200 degrees, so that is what I used for this recipe.
- Using a mandoline*, slice your pears crosswise (horizontally) in 1/8th inch slices (or just shy or 1/8th inch) until all of the pears are sliced. You can slice the pears by hand if you don’t have a mandoline, just make sure the slices are uniform so they dry consistently.
- Discard the very end pieces and remove the seeds from the inner slices.
- Arrange the pear slices in a single layer on wire cooling racks or wire drying racks. Sprinkle the pear slices with cinnamon or other spices if you are using them.
- Move your racks to the the oven and bake for about 60-80 minutes, or until the pears are completely dried. Keep close watch on your pear crisps since the bake time will depend on your oven and slice thickness. If your lowest heat setting is less than 200 degrees, then it will take longer. If your pear slices are very thin*, it will take less time.
- Turn off the oven heat and let the pear crisps sit in the oven for another 30-60 minutes to continue drying without heat.
- Store in a sealed bag or container. Enjoy!
Notes: Slicing your pears to less than 1/8 inch will make them dry faster, but they may end up too fragile and crumbly if they are too thin
The pear chips are so good! I had a hard time NOT eating them all and saving some to photograph (and share with my kids…). The Pear Crisps are amazing on their own, but you can jazz up the recipe if you like by making some Pumpkin Spice Dip to go with it. The pear and pumpkin taste really good together! My kids loved the pumpkin dip and ate the rest of it with crackers when the pear crisps were gone.
Pumpkin Spice Dip
Gluten free, vegan; Free of: dairy, soy, peanuts, eggs
Ingredients
- 1 6-ounce container So Delicious Greek style Coconut yogurt (vanilla or plain)
- 1/2 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
- 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Vanilla Creme Stevia drops, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut yogurt, pumpkin, maple syrup, spices, and vanilla, and mix together thoroughly.
- Serve with your favorite crackers or pear crisps. Store leftovers in the fridge.
- Enjoy!
* If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- Dash of pinch each of nutmeg and all spice
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