Prunes or dried plums - how to make prunes at home. How to make prune preparations at home Prune preparation at home

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In order to have dishes on your table, complemented by savory ones, you don’t have to buy this one in a retail chain, especially since it costs a lot. You can easily prepare prunes with your own hands at home. And if you consider that now, as a rule, you can find a high-quality product that is not treated with various harmful substances long-term storage and presentable appearance is almost impossible, then the motivation for self-cooking increases significantly.

If you are ready to start preparing, then our following recommendations will help you cope with the task perfectly, and as a result you will receive a very tasty and undoubtedly healthy product.

Cooking prunes at home

To get truly tasty and high-quality homemade prunes, we select for this purpose the ripest plum fruits, which very easily part with the seeds without damaging the inner pulp.

Wash the selected fruits thoroughly and remove the seeds. Then prepare the blanching solution. To do this, dissolve one hundred grams of baking soda in ten liters of water and heat it to a temperature of ninety degrees.

We immerse the prepared plums in the resulting soda mixture and leave for twenty to thirty seconds. Immediately rinse the fruits with hot water, let them drain thoroughly, and place them on a baking sheet that has been previously covered with parchment.

The entire process of drying prunes includes three stages. Initially, place the plums in an oven preheated to fifty degrees and leave for three to four hours. Then we let the fruits cool completely, after mixing them, and put them back into the oven, now preheated to seventy degrees. After five hours of drying, remove the baking sheet, stir and also cool. At the final third stage, place the cream in an oven preheated to ninety degrees and dry for another four hours. At each drying stage, the oven door should be slightly open.

If you did everything correctly, then at the end of all the steps you should end up with delicious homemade prunes. If desired, you can give the dried fruit a natural shine. To do this, at the end of the last stage, we increase the temperature to one hundred and twenty degrees and hold for several minutes. At the same time, the sugar contained in the fruit rises to the surface and caramelizes, thereby giving it a glossy shine.

Owners of an electric dryer can easily prepare homemade prunes using it.

How to make prunes from plums in an electric dryer?

You can dry fruits, both with and without seeds. For drying and drying, it is better to choose fruits of the “Hungarian” variety. They are quite meaty and taste great for this purpose.

So, the plums are washed and pitted if desired. Now we need, as in traditional version blanch the fruits. To do this, we lower them for twenty seconds into a soda solution heated to a temperature of ninety degrees, prepared at the rate of one hundred grams of soda per ten liters of water. Then we rinse the plums thoroughly, let them drain, and place them on the dryer trays, not very tightly together.

The temperature regime of the dryer should be approximately the same as when drying in an oven and also include several stages. Initially dry at fifty degrees for about four hours. Then we raise the temperature to sixty degrees and leave for five hours. It will take the same or a little more time to dry at seventy degrees. After each drying stage, it is necessary to remove the drain trays for about five hours to cool and air dry.

It is possible that your plums will be more or less juicy and the drying time will need more or less time accordingly. We periodically check the readiness of prunes and determine the time for preparing them at home ourselves.

How to store prunes at home?

Ready prunes are best stored in paper bags or wooden boxes. But you can also put it in glass containers, tie paper on top and store it in a cool place.

Due to its pleasant taste and aroma, it is widely in demand in cooking. In addition, dried fruit in winter serves as a source of vitamins, dietary fiber and organic acids, the deficiency of which everyone experiences during this period. Find out how to prepare prunes from the recipes presented in the article.

As the starting material for producing prunes, it is recommended to choose plum varieties with large dark-colored fruits, a sweet taste and an easily separated pit, for example “Ugorka”, “Tragedy”, “Hungarian Vanheim” or “Hungarian Azhanskaya”.

To prepare 1 kg of prunes, you will need to take 4.5 kg of fully ripened, dense fruits. The process of harvesting prunes is carried out in several ways - in natural conditions, in the oven and in an electric dryer. It will take 8-10 days to harvest prunes using the natural method. The process itself includes several stages:

Preparation. Before laying out for drying, the stems of the plums selected for harvesting are removed, then they are washed and divided into halves. Place on wooden trays in one layer, cut side up, at some distance from each other.
Drying in the sun. To carry it out, trays with plums are taken out into the air and placed in the sun. Cover with gauze to prevent insects and leave for about 5 days. To prevent mold from forming on them during this time, the fruits must be turned several times daily.
Drying in the shade. Already dried plums should be transferred to a shaded place and kept there for about 3-4 days.

Advice. Preparing prunes will go faster if you blanch the fruits first by dipping 1 tbsp in boiling water and soda for a minute. soda per 1 liter of water, and then, after removing, rinse with cold water. The cracks that form on the plum skin will allow the pulp to dry out faster.

How to dry prunes in the oven

This method allows you to prepare prunes much faster than when drying naturally. As in previous recipe The plums selected for harvesting must be washed and blanched in a soda solution for up to 2 minutes, then rinsed with water and air dried for an hour.

Advice! To ensure that prunes are of high quality and tasty, it is recommended to dry them together with the pits.

After heating the oven to 60°C, you need to place the prepared plums in it and keep them at this temperature for 5 hours. After taking it out, let it rest for another 5 hours just in the air. The next stage of drying in the oven is carried out at a temperature of 70°C and lasts 6 hours, after which the product is again allowed to settle for some time. At the final stage, the prunes are dried until tender at a temperature of 80°C.

When drying prunes in the oven, it is important not to overdry them. The fact that he is completely ready can be judged by appearance– the fruits, while maintaining a soft texture, do not release juice. This product must be stored in jars, tightly closed with a lid. The optimal place is a storage room or balcony.

Prunes in an electric dryer

Before placing the fruits in the electric dryer, they are prepared similarly to the previous recipes, that is, they are sorted and washed. If the plum is dried whole, then the fruits should definitely be blanched in a soda solution, but if they are divided into halves and the seeds are removed, blanching can be dispensed with. Preparation of prunes:

at the first stage, the plums are dried in an electric dryer at a temperature of 50°C for 3-4 hours, after which they must be cooled. If fruits divided into halves are suitable for processing, they are laid out with the cuts facing up;
the second stage is drying the fruits in an electric dryer at t° 60°C for another 5 hours, after which the fruits must be cooled again;
the third stage is drying at t° 80°C for 6 hours.

Attention! To ensure that fruits are dried evenly, it is necessary to periodically change the trays.

Prunes prepared in this way should also be stored in jars in ventilated areas. You can use the finished product when preparing other dishes or as an independent treat.

Original recipe for sweet prunes

To prepare several jars of this delicacy you will need a kilogram of plums, half a kilogram of sugar and 2 cups. water.

Prepare the fruits by removing the seeds and dividing them into halves.
Prepare syrup, place plums in it, bring to a boil.
Remove the fruits, let the syrup drain, place the plums on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar.
Place in an oven preheated to 50°C. Dry at this temperature in 3 stages. The duration of each stage is 12 hours. + 12 hour breaks between them.
Place the finished product in jars and use it as an independent dish or as a component when preparing desserts or drinks.

By preparing plums according to the recipes presented, you can diversify your winter diet and enjoy the taste of prunes by adding dried or dried homemade product to your usual dishes.

How to cook prunes: video

Glistening with their glossy sides, prunes lying on store shelves just beg to be bought and, of course, eaten. But we know what created this “gloss” and therefore the beautiful appearance of dried fruits does not deceive us. After all, it is quite clear that, treated with glycerin, sulfur compounds, or liquid smoke, the “sparkling” prunes almost completely lost their beneficial features. And if you still plan to purchase dried fruits, then it is better to purchase a product without a bright “color” and a more natural appearance. And if the fear of buying is still strong, then there is, perhaps, the only way out - to prepare natural prunes at home. Together with http://obliznis.ru/ we will now advise you on how to make prunes with your own hands.

How to make prunes at home

Naturally, first of all we will deal with the selection and preparatory processing fresh fruit. For the process of preparing dried prunes, we need to select very ripe, even better overripe, plums.

Of course, the selected fruits are first washed thoroughly and, if desired, the seeds are removed. It should be noted that prunes at home can be made both pitted and pitted. True, by leaving a seemingly unnecessary pit, we will retain a much larger amount of useful substances in dried prunes.

After blanching, we immediately rinse our plums with hot water and move on to the process of drying the prunes.

We will, of course, dry our prepared plums in the oven! But we will monitor the temperature conditions of the process very carefully so that our prunes turn out not only tasty, but also healthy.

Since the procedure for drying fruits in the process of how to make prunes at home is the most significant, let’s, for convenience, divide it into three stages.

Stage one

Place the plums on a baking sheet and, placing it in an oven preheated to 50 degrees, dry the fruits for 3-4 hours.

Stage two

Take the baking sheet out of the oven. Stir the plums (carefully, they are hot) and cool. After the fruits have completely cooled, we preheat our oven to 70 degrees and place a baking sheet with plums there for another 5 hours.

Stage three

After removing the baking sheet from the oven, repeat the previously performed steps (stir and cool). We bring the temperature in the oven to 90 degrees and, placing a baking sheet in it, dry our homemade prunes until fully cooked, spending another 4 hours.

That's all our advice on how to make prunes at home.

To obtain a shiny surface of dried fruits, it is not at all necessary to treat them with anything. If, shortly before drying the fruits in the oven, the temperature is increased to 120 degrees, the sugar released from the fruits will caramelize the dried fruits and give their surface a gloss without the use of any “chemicals.”

Naturally, having prepared prunes, it is also important to provide them with the necessary storage conditions. You need to store cooked prunes either in paper bags or in wooden boxes. You can, of course, store dried fruits in a closed glass container, but for this the prunes must be 100% dry. Some housewives use bay leaf, sprinkling a small amount of bay on dried fruits prepared for storage.

You can, of course, save yourself the hassle and buy prunes at the market or in a store, but if you know how to make prunes at home, why expose yourself and your loved ones to possible danger. However, decide for yourself!

» Plums

Dried plums are called prunes. Properly prepared prunes have excellent taste and are able to retain a huge amount of useful substances.

Not every variety of plum is suitable for preparing our favorite dried fruit. Hungarian plums are often used to make prunes.

The best thing suitable variety Hungarian Italian. The fruits of this variety are large in size, oval in shape, blue in color with a bluish tint. This plum is perfect for drying because it has a thick skin and elastic pulp. Besides This variety is characterized by a low acid content and a sufficient amount of sugar.

In addition to Italian Hungarian, Hungarian Azhan and Hungarian violet are used to make prunes. Varieties such as Ugorka, Burton and Izyum-erik are also excellent for drying.

To prepare prunes, only ripe or overripe fruits are chosen, since they have the highest sugar content and little acid in them.

Plums for drying are collected from the ground, but in no case are they picked from tree branches. If the fruit falls off, it means it has reached ripeness. Before picking the fruits, the tree should be lightly shaken so that damaged fruits, as well as rotten ones and those with wormholes, fall out. The next day you can already pick up ripe plums.

Having decided on the choice of variety for preparing dried plums, you can begin the preparatory processing of fresh fruit.

Cooking prunes is not an easy process, as it may initially seem. If you simply dry plums, they will not make prunes. The fruit will lose its juice, become too hard and the surface of the fruit will turn brown instead of black.

Before the drying process begins, the fruits are stored in a covered area in baskets. The volume of fruit in one basket does not exceed 16 kg. The fruits are stored for three days. This is necessary to ensure softness of the plum, which will later become a property of prunes. If this period is extended, fermentation processes will begin to occur in the collected fruits. Naturally, before drying the plums, they are washed well. This is done several times in a row. When the water becomes clear after washing the fruit, this procedure can be completed.
Then the plums are sorted, that is, large plums are separated from small ones.. After this, the plums are checked for the presence of spoiled fruits, which cannot be used to prepare prunes. At the end of the research procedure, the fruits are thoroughly washed again. But the preparation of plums for drying is not yet completed.
Next, the blanching procedure is carried out. That is, the fruits are subjected to heat treatment: they are placed in hot water. This process helps soften the tissues of the fruit, as well as displace air from the plum and increase the size of the cells. In addition, when the fruit is placed in water, oxidative enzymes are broken down. During blanching, the only important elements lost are a small amount of ascorbic acid. The number of remaining significant substances remains almost unchanged. But treatment with water alone is not enough.
To get rid of the waxy part from the surface of the fruit, alkaline treatment is used. A boiling 1% solution of cautic soda is suitable for this procedure. The plums lie in it for 15 - 20 seconds. But here you need to know that at home, plums may not be completely washed after processing. In this regard, potash should be used instead of caustic soda. After treatment with alkali, the fruit is cooled.

How to make dried fruits in the oven?

To prepare prunes in the oven, the plums are blanched, then washed with cold water and left to dry on a towel. If the fruit is cut into two parts, then the blanching procedure is not carried out. Drying fruits in the oven consists of three stages at different temperatures.

At the first stage, the oven is heated to 50 ° C, a baking sheet with fruit is placed in it for 5 hours. After this, the plums cool for the same period of time.
At the next stage, the plums are turned over and dried for 5 hours in an oven heated to 70 ° C.
At the last stage of drying, the temperature increases to 75 °C. Here the fruits are already brought to full readiness.

To achieve a glossy appearance, dried fruits do not need to be processed in any way. If a few minutes before the end of drying the fruit in the oven, the temperature is increased to 120 ° C, then the sugar released from the fruit will caramelize the prunes and add shine to their surface.

Cooking prunes in an electric dryer

To obtain prunes in an electric dryer, after blanching, the plums are placed on a tray in one layer. If the fruits are divided in half, then they are laid cut side up. The drying process using this method also takes place in 3 stages at certain temperature conditions:

During the first 3–4 hours, fruits are dried at a temperature of 45–55 °C;
then the plums are dried at a temperature of 60 degrees for 6 hours;
the final stage - the fruits are dried for 6 hours at a temperature of 75–80 °C.

At all stages of preparing dried fruits, the trays are swapped every hour, so that the dried fruits turn out to be of better quality.

After completing each stage, the trays are removed from the dryer for several hours to cool the future prunes.

Drying plums in the sun

Naturally, the fruits are dried on sheets of wood. The fruit halves, separated from the seeds, are laid out on a sheet not very close to each other, cut side up, so that during drying they do not lose their juice. Depending on the size, plums should lie in the sun for 4 to 5 days.

Care should be taken to ensure that insects do not land on the fruit. Otherwise, dried fruits may contain harmful microorganisms.

At night, the plums are brought into the house, and in the morning they are taken out into the fresh air after dew has fallen, so that mold does not form on them. When drying, turn the plums over from time to time so that they dry evenly on each side. After drying under the rays of sunlight is completed, the fruits are dried in a shaded place for another 3-4 days.

The readiness of prunes is checked according to certain criteria:

when you press on the fruit, there are no ruptures and juice does not flow out;
the fruits are elastic and hard, but do not crumble if you press on them;
prunes do not stick to your fingers.

Methods for storing prunes at home

It is absolutely not difficult to preserve prunes at home. To do this, you just need to follow some simple recommendations. To store this dried fruit, use linen bags and paper bags, wooden boxes with good ventilation, tightly closed containers or glass, metal and plastic containers with an airtight lid.

Before storing fruits, you should make sure that they are intact, without damage, stains or plaque on the surface.

Store at room temperature in a container with an airtight lid

Prunes can be stored in glass and ceramic jars with a tight-fitting lid for up to six months.

First of all, the container is prepared. It is washed thoroughly, doused with boiling water and dried.
Then dried fruits are placed in it, closed tightly with a lid and placed in a cool place.
If the prunes are wet, they should be dried.
It is necessary to periodically monitor the condition of dried plums.

Placing dried fruits in hermetically sealed containers, tin or glass jars recognized in the best possible way storage

Storing dried plums in linen bags and paper bags

Some people store dried fruits in linen bags. But only if there are no harmful insects in the house, such as ants or cockroaches.

Thick fabric bags are soaked in a strong saline solution. Next, they are dried well, prunes are placed in them and tied.

Fill and close in the same way. paper bags. Thanks to fabric and paper, dried plums can breathe, and they also become moldy and retain all their beneficial qualities.

The only disadvantage of this storage method is the impossibility of placing prunes near very smelling products: coffee, spices, tobacco.

Storing prunes in the refrigerator

If high humidity prevails in the room, then dried fruits are stored in the refrigerator. For this:

Carefully sort out the prunes and separate the damaged fruits.
Packaged in small portions in glass containers with a tight-fitting lid, containers or zip-lock bags.
Place on a shelf, refrigerator door or in the fruit drawer
Once a week you need to check the moisture in the container. If it appears, the fruits are dried.

Proper storage of dried plums will preserve all its important properties.

Naturally, you can protect yourself from unnecessary hassle and buy prunes at the market or in a store. But when it is possible to cook prunes at home, you should not expose yourself and your family to possible negative consequences.

Prunes displayed on grocery store shelves look beautiful and shiny. But often there is no naturalness behind this shine. To give dried fruits a similar look, an unscrupulous manufacturer treats them with sulfur or liquid smoke and covers them with a thin layer of wax or glycerin. There is little benefit from such a product, and besides, it is not cheap. Therefore, good housewives have long learned to cook prunes on their own. After all, in the summer of a good year, plums can be bought very cheaply. Cooking does not take much time and effort. Therefore, with just a little effort, you can provide yourself and your family with useful and delicious product for the whole winter.

Prunes are very beneficial for the human body. It is actively used in the fight against constipation and other gastrointestinal diseases. Prunes cleanse the intestines effectively, but gently. In addition, after drying, prunes retain everything useful material and vitamins contained in plums. But how to prepare a product so that it remains healthy, safe, and lasts until spring?

Recipe for making natural prunes

There is nothing extra in this recipe, just plums. These prunes are suitable for people who adhere to healthy eating rules. Let's start preparing the natural delicacy.

It is best to dry prunes from the “Hungarian” plum variety. In this case, you will receive a product that is as close in appearance to the store product as possible. Although, in fact, prunes can be prepared from any plum, even round ones.
Fruits for drying should be ripe, but moderately hard and fleshy. If you buy plums, make sure that the pulp is easily separated from the pit. For drying, choose only strong fruits without wormholes. It is better to put limp and wrinkled plums aside.
Some people try to get rid of the whitish coating on the surface of the fruit. In order for the plum to last long, it really should be washed off. However, this is not easy to do, so we will soak the fruits in alkaline water. Dissolve a little soda in a basin (a teaspoon per three liters of water) and dip the plum into the solution. After a while it will be easy to clean and rinse under running water.
It is better to dry the fruits without seeds. Small plums can be left with a pit, but in winter you will have to be very careful not to damage your tooth on an unnoticed pit.
After removing the seeds, the fruits should be cut in half. It is much easier to dry them in halves.
The next stage is blanching. Place a pot of water on the fire and bring it to a boil. Dip the plum halves into the water and wait 5-10 minutes. After this, remove the plums and immediately place them in cold (or ice-cold) water. Remember, the fruits should be soft, but elastic and not cooked.
After this, place the halves on a baking sheet in one layer and dry for 2-3 hours at a temperature of 60-80 degrees. At the same time, open the oven slightly so as not to dry out the product. Turn over the plum halves several times throughout.
When you take out the plums, leave them for another day in a ventilated place - on a windowsill or on a balcony. Cover the fruit with gauze to protect it from insects. After 24 hours, the plum can be stored.

This is a simple recipe for making natural plums. But there is one more that will definitely please those with a sweet tooth.

This is a recipe for sweet prunes that kids will love.

We select and prepare the fruits as in the previous recipe. IN this recipe We remove the pit, but do not cut the plum in half. Let it remain intact.
Fill the plums with sugar in a ratio of 3:1. That is, for three kilograms of fruit you will need one kilogram of sugar.
Plums, unlike other fruits and berries, do not release juice well, so you will have to wait for the valuable syrup. Leave the plum and sugar under slight pressure for a day and stir the mixture regularly. Be careful not to damage the fruit.
When the syrup appears, put the pan on the fire and bring to a boil. It is very important that as soon as the plum begins to boil, it should be turned off so that the fruits do not cook. Stir the plums thoroughly to ensure that all the fruits are coated with the sugar syrup.
After this, the mass must cool down - at this time the fruits are even more actively saturated with the sugar composition. After cooling, place the mixture in a colander and let the plums drain. Then place the fruit halves on parchment and place in the oven. You need to dry the plum at a minimum temperature for about 3-4 hours. Heat will speed up the process, but the fruits will lose vitamins and become useless.
After drying, allow the cream to dry completely at room temperature.
By the way, sugar syrup no need to pour out. It is very aromatic and tasty. It can be used for liqueurs, the syrup can be diluted with water and drunk as compote or used as a filling for pancakes.
The finished prunes should be dried, but quite elastic.

These prunes can be used as a dessert or filling for pies. Sweet prunes can be added to meat marinades - they give dishes a subtle sour taste and fruity aroma. Leave prunes in a vase on the table, and the children will happily gobble them up instead of sweets.

If the prunes are sufficiently dried, they can be stored in a canvas bag in the kitchen drawer. If you doubt whether prunes are well dried and expect to store them for a long time, freeze the dried fruits in the freezer. It is better to first divide the prunes into portions to make defrosting more convenient.

Summer is the time for preparing, drying, boiling and preparing marinades. Good hostess will not only provide for the family natural products, but will also save the family budget. After all, the cost of homemade prunes turns out to be 10 times cheaper than the dubious product that we find on store shelves. Dry prunes, make preparations - and winter will pass for you without loss of money or vitamins!