Dehydrating Fruit - Cook It! September Resolution: Raisins

Grapes = Raisins. So simple. And so much more lip-smacking when you make them yourself. That's what I did for the Grow It Cook It Can It September Cook It! 2012 dehydrate fruit resolution.

I started with a bunch of small organic green grapes; seedless, and very flavorful. Gave 'em a rinse and pulled out all the stems. Though now I know why you sometimes get little stem bits in your raisins — those suckers can be tough to remove! Popped the grapes into the dehydrator at 135 degrees, and went to sleep.

After 12 hours, to my delight they were starting to look like raisins!

And after a little more than 26 hours, my grapes had been truly raisin-ified.

Since grapes are pretty much pure water, it can take some time to dehydrate them. Count on anywhere from 24-48 hours depending on the size of the grapes you are using.

These raisins really do pack so much more punch in terms of their pure, grape-y flavor, I have found myself mostly just eating them as a snack. This is one of the best dehydrating projects I've done so far, and the payoff was great.