How To Dehydrate Pineapple

Dehydrated pineapple is a delicious snack and healthy treat. It tastes like candy!

Dried fruit is a great way to preserve and store fruit for a long time. It can also enhance the flavor and sweetness of fruit, especially one that is high in natural sugars like dried pineapple.

Homemade dehydrated pineapple beats store dried too.

It is preservative and sulfite free. Pineapple is full of vitamin c and dietary fiber, making this a healthy sweet snack.

How to dehydrate fruit?

Dehydrated fruits are dried at a low temperature for a long period of time until all the moisture has gone.

The drying process is long and slow to ensure the moisture has gone in the whole fruit (including the middle), and not just dried out the edges. For best results, use a food dehydrator. This has consistent drying temperatures and multiple dehydrator trays to dry lots of fruit at a time.

The drying time it takes to dehydrate pineapple depends on the drying temperature and the thickness of the fruit.

What pineapple to use?

You can use fresh ripe pineapple, frozen pineapple, or even canned pineapple slices or pieces. As long as they are cut at a consistent thickness so that they dry evenly. Fresh pineapple brings the tangiest flavor, while canned results in a sweeter snack.

Fresh whole pineapple can result in some discoloration of the fruit as it dries. This doesn’t affect the quality or the flavor of the fruit but if you don’t like the look, it can be mitigated by soaking the pineapple pieces in some lemon juice before drying it.

The pineapple will shrink considerably in size once it is dried. If you can, dry a few pineapples at once to make the most of the drying time needed. It’s such a great snack, it’s shame to only make a small batch.

Equipment

You will need a food dehydrator. The dehydrator used in this post was a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator.

A pineapple corer is helpful to cut a whole fresh pineapple.

Method

Fresh pineapples – Peel and core the pineapples. On a cutting board, cut the pineapple into thin slices and equal pieces, around 1/4 inch thick. You can also cut pineapple slices though note that these will take longer to dry. The fresh pieces can be soaked in lemon juice to stop them from discoloring throughout the dehydration process. This is an optional step.

Canned pineapple and frozen – Cut canned pineapple slices or pineapple chunks should be drained well of the canned fruit juice. Cut them into smaller pieces, or leave them as they are. Frozen pineapple can be thawed prior to drying to remove the excess moisture but it’s not necessary. It will just take a little longer to dry.

Lay the cut pineapples in a single layer on the dehydrating trays.

Dehydrate at 58°C / 135°F until they are dried and leathery, but they will still be a bit flexible and chewy. This can take between 12-16 hours depending on the type of pineapple used and the thickness.

Turn off the dehydrator and let the pineapple dry for a further 2 hours at room temperature.

Once they are completely cooled, store them in an air-tight container or glass jar. Check the pineapple after a few days to ensure there is no condensation accumulating on the sides of the jar or container. If there is, then the pineapple wasn’t properly dried and should go back in the dehydrator.

Long-term storage – Properly dried pineapple can last over a year, but if it’s not dried correctly a little moisture can ruin the batch.

Store the dry pineapple in a sealed jar out of direct sunlight. The hardest part is to savor this sweet treat and not eat it all once!

Sharing is caring!