Ingredients
- 15 cups finely chopped plum
- 1.5 kg sweet cherries, pitted
Instructions
- Pick plums that give slightly at the stem end and cherries that are dark right through to the stalk. Under-ripe stone fruit dries sour, and no amount of time in the machine will sweeten it.
- Pit the cherries over the blender jug so their juice goes in with them. That juice carries most of the colour.
- Blend only as long as it takes to lose the last chunks. Over-blending warms the puree and drives off the fresh smell you are trying to keep.
- Taste the puree before it goes anywhere near a tray. Drying concentrates whatever is already there, and this is the last moment at which you can do anything about it.
- Pour it onto a lined tray and level it to 6 mm with an offset spatula, leaving a clean border around the outside. The border is what you grip when you come to peel it.
- Dehydrate at 54 °C for 8 hours. Press the centre with a fingertip partway through and again near the end: you want an even springiness across the sheet, with no cool soft patches.
- It is finished when the sheet lifts away from the liner in one piece and holds a fold without cracking or weeping. Dark patches that still look wet are exactly that.
- Roll it in baking paper while it is warm and cut the roll into lengths. They hold for six months in a jar, or in the freezer for a big batch — this one is sweet enough to attract insects in a pantry.
Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 286 kcal | 81 kcal |
| Protein | 4.7 g | 1.3 g |
| Fat | 1.4 g | 0.4 g |
| saturated | 0.2 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 62.1 g | 17.6 g |
| sugars | 59.9 g | 17 g |
| Fibre | 9.1 g | 2.6 g |
| Sodium | 0 mg | 0 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
