Dehydrated fruit is not only cheap to make, but it’s so tasty you’ll have a hard time sharing your final products with your dog!
We chose apples, mango, and blueberries for this recipe but you can use any dog-safe fruit or vegetable. Drying times will vary depending on the thickness and juiciness of your fruit. Paper-thin mango slices dried in just 4 hours, while juicy blueberries took 24 hours to become rich and enticing little niblets.
Dehydrated Fruit Treats for Dogs
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 hours
- Total Time: 12 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 5 Trays 1x
- Category: Healthy Treats
Ingredients
- Two Apples
- One Mango
- 3 Cups of Frozen Blueberries
- 2 Lemons
Equipment
- We used a Nesco Snackmaster dehydrator
- Optional: Mandoline, lemon juicer
Instructions
First, we’re going to make a lemon juice bath to soak the apples in to help prevent browning.
Juice the lemons into a large glass bowl and add a cup and a half or so of water.
Peel and slice the apples, placing them into the lemon bath as you finish.
Peel and slice the mango, tossing them into the lemon bath.
After the fruit has been in the lemon bath for at least 5 minutes, drain and pat dry with a towel, or cheat like we did and use your salad spinner.
Place fruit onto dehydrator trays, taking care that nothing touches.
Whatever style of dehydrator you’re using, you’re going to want to save the bottom trays for your blueberries, as they will drip and spatter juice on the rest of your goodies.
Spread the frozen blueberries onto the remaining trays, making sure nothing touches.
Load up your dehydrator and start it up, setting the heat to 130º
Paper thin slices of apple or mango will dry in as little as 4 hours. Thicker slices 8-12 hours.
The blueberries will take the longest time, up to overnight! Just check up on them regularly.
Note: Our blueberries were 95% done at 24 hours. We picked out the berries that were still a little juicy and ate them immediately. Sometimes these sacrifices to the cause are necessary.
Notes
- For crisper fruit, keep in the dehydrator longer.
- You can use your oven instead of a dehydrator, set to lowest possible setting and start checking dryness at 2 hours and every 30 minutes or so thereafter.
- Fruit dried crisp will last longer than veggies dried to the chewy state.
- Chewy fruit snacks should be eaten in the next couple days or kept in the fridge ideally.
- Crispy dried fruit should last 2 weeks in an airtight container.
- Check out these drying tips from the National Center for Home Preservation for the optimum longevity of your dried goodies.
Tasting Notes
Apple versus mango: who will win?
