Home made Trail Mix

Part one: Apples

By The Bimbler

One summer I was given a carrier bag full of apples by an enthusiastic neighbour so processed them into rings, threaded them onto string and dried them in my conservatory, the taste was incredible and the texture satisfying so thus began my fixation with home made hiking food.

Trail mix tends to be boring, the military call it GORP which stands for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts and that’s usually the predominant ingredients. I urge you to have a go at making your own, the flavours are off the scale compared to anything you can buy commercially.

My first tip has to be choose tasty apples, bland fruit will still taste bland after it’s been dehydrated. Most fruits can be processed as I did by threading onto string and hanging up in a sunny and dry room for a day or two. You know when they’re perfect because the slices tend to snap rather than bend. If you don’t have a suitable space use your oven set at its lowest temperature,or if like me you enjoy the fruits of your labour invest in a dehydrator which start at about £30 and go up to several hundred.

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Quarter the fruit then slice out the section with the remaining core Thinly slice approximately 3/4mm

My other method involves removing the core first, then peeling the fruit and slicing into rings

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Place them flat on greaseproof paper or cling film and before putting them into your dryer, sprinkle some with cinnamon powder or ground cloves. They typically take between 6 and 12 hours

when cooled down can be eaten as they are, stored in a kilner jar to keep them crisp or mixed with other dried fruit and nuts. Here we have mixed apple rings, pineapple and banana.