How to Dry Pears for Pear Candy

Dehydrating pears is a simple and super delicious drying project.  Dehydrating fruits intensifies the flavor and makes them portable, snackable, and easy to pack with you for day trips, camping, car snacks, long meetings, you get the idea.  Dehydrated pears are sweet and chewy like pear candy and you’ll probably have to hide them from the kids or they’ll be gone before you get any!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Pears (either from the store, your own trees, or a farmer’s market)
• Corer (optional) or metal teaspoon–mine is just the cheap kind from the local store made of thin metal so it actually cuts nicely
• Knife and cutting board
• Mandoline slicer (optional, but it makes nice even slices fast!)
• Fruit Fresh or other color preservative (again, optional, but it makes the final color of the dried pears less brown)
• Dehydrator
• Container for your dried pears

Ready to get started?

1. Wash your pears and prepare the color preservative soak liquid.  I use 2 quarts of water mixed with 2 Tablespoons of Fruit Fresh.

2. Peel the pears.  Some varieties peel better than others.  You may need to just use a paring knife or vegetable peeler, but you might be able to peel them the easy way!  If your pears are nicely ripe and a variety that peels easily (I’m using bosc pears in this post), you can use the quick peel method outlined below:

Dip 5-6 pears at a time into hot-to-boiling water for 10-15 seconds.  No longer.

Remove the pears with a slotted spoon.

Place pears in cold water.

Peels will now sluff off easily with your hands.

See how easy this method is in this video:

3. Core and half the pears.  If you are using a corer, core first, then slice if desired.  Or you can leave the pears whole and dehydrate pear rings.  If you are using a metal teaspoon to core, slice each pear in half first, then use the teaspoon to scrape and cut out the core and stem pieces like this:

4. Slice the pears into the fruit preservative solution.  I use a mandolin slicer to speed this process up and give me nice even slices.  This solution in the picture has been through a couple rounds of pear slices already which is why it looks cloudy!

5. Place the soaked pears on the dehydrator trays.  Single layer.  If they’re touching, they might stick together but can be broken apart pretty easily once they’re dried.

6. Dry at 135 degrees F for approximately 8 hours.  Your time may vary depending on the ambient humidity.

7. Package dry pears in airtight containers for storage or just eat them.  I like to use canning jars and vacuum seal the lid on using my FoodSaver and jar sealer attachment.

That’s it!  Super easy and delicious way to preserve pears!

Keep preparing!
Angela