How To: Dehydrate Strawberries
Dehydrating strawberries transforms them into a portable, sweet treat that's perfect for snacking, baking, or brightening your mornings. No sugar, no fuss, just pure, concentrated fruity bliss.
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Healthy Homemade Snacks
Some people are cookie monsters, some people prefer salty snacks, but my kid, well, he prefers berries. To keep up with the demand, we’ve planted a few strawberry patches around our homestead.
It’s great, for several months of the year, we’re able to feed him fresh fruit by the bushel, but due to our cold climate, that’s not always possible.
Often, during the winter months, we are relegated to terribly watery, flavourless, and expensive strawberries that just don’t live up to our expectations (or the price paid!)
Instead, I use my dehydrator to dry fresh picked strawberries to get us through the doldrums of winter!
This how to guide is dedicated to tasty strawberries ALL year.
Expert Tips
- Pick the freshest, most vibrant foods you can when dehydrating. The most important reason for this is that the fresher the food that goes into the dehydrator, the fresher the flavor and texture when reconstituted.
- Frozen berries will not work, and may be better suited to fruit leather. While tasteless or bland berries will not improve in flavor by dehydrating. Your strawberries should be high quality, and perfectly ripe.
- Aim for consistency in your slice or dice. I say it with every dehydrator recipe I post, but it bears repeating! The more consistently sized the pieces you are dehydrating, the more consistent the drying time, the final result, and the reconstituted product. The faster all pieces are dried, the better as longer drying times can lead to reduced flavor in the dried food.
- Properly dried foods refresh well, so it’s important to take the time to get it right. This means picking ripe fruit, preparing them properly, drying them properly, and storing your dried strawberries the right way!
Key Ingredients
Strawberries: Pick delicious, fresh ripe strawberries that are very red, firm, and have a strong berry scent. Avoid any bruised or overripe berries.
How To Dehydrate Strawberries
- Prepare strawberries for dehydrating by washing carefully in a sink of cold water with a splash of vinegar. Place the berries in a colander and rinse well, spread in a single layer on a kitchen towel and allow to dry completely as excess moisture will prolong the drying time.
- Hull the berries by cutting off the tops, if there is any green stem left in the strawberry use a pairing knife to cut it out.
- Slice the strawberries into quarter inch thick slices, using either a sharp knife or a mandolin slicer. A mandolin makes quick work of firm strawberries, but if yours a little more ripe, you may need to use a knife.
- Spread the sliced strawberries on a dehydrator tray in a single layer, leaving gaps between the fruit to improve airflow.
- Dehydrate the strawberry slices at 135f for 8-10 hours, or until they are leathery and crisp. To check doneness of the berries, remove one or two slices from the dehydrator and allow them to cool. Once cooled, slice them or break them down the middle, if any moisture is present, they must be dehydrated longer. The strawberries should be leathery and somewhat pliable. It is better for the berries to be too dry than not dry enough and risk spoilage.
- Once dried, allow them to cool on the dehydrator trays for 30-45 minutes.
- Transfer your strawberry chips to an sterilized airtight container for storage.
See What Else I’m Dehydrating
Rehydrating Dried Strawberries
While dried strawberries can be tossed straight into trail mix, oatmeal, or baked goods, taking a few extra minutes to rehydrate them can help revive their soft, juicy texture and intensify their flavor.
To rehydrate, simply combine equal parts dried strawberries and warm water by volume (e.g. 1 cup strawberries + 1 cup water), and let them soak. Warmer water speeds up the process, while cooler water takes longer. They're ready when they plump up and resemble their original size.
Avoid soaking for more than 2 hours, prolonged soaking can reintroduce spoilage risks by encouraging microbial growth.
Converting Dehydrated Strawberries to Fresh
There's no one-size-fits-all rule when it comes to converting dried strawberries back to their fresh form, but here's a trick I use: I measure out 4 cups of fresh strawberries into the top tray of my dehydrator for each batch. After drying, I measure what's left.
For my slices, 1 cup fresh strawberries generally equals about ¼ cup dried chips. This makes it easy to reverse the math when needed!
Batch + Storage
Batch:
All you need for this recipe are fresh strawberries and enough space on your dehydrator rack, simple as that! The batch size is totally flexible and can be scaled up or down depending on how many trays you've got available.
Only prepare as many strawberries as you can dehydrate immediately. Once sliced, strawberries start to lose moisture and freshness quickly, and can darken or develop an off texture if left sitting too long.
For reference, I sliced and dehydrated 8 pounds of strawberries for this post, which filled a half-gallon jar once dried.
Storage:
Store your dehydrated strawberries in clean, dry, airtight containers-glass jars are my go-to (partly because I have a hard time saying no to a pretty jar on a store shelf-can you relate?!).
If you’re drying strawberries in bulk, vacuum sealing is a great option for long-term storage. A chamber vacuum sealer paired with thick vacuum bags works best-dried strawberries can have sharp edges that may poke through thinner plastic.
Stick with smaller containers if you’re planning to use them gradually. Each time you open the container, moisture sneaks in and shortens the shelf life-so aim to limit exposure as much as you can! The jar should be kept in a cool dark place, away from direct sunlight, without temperature fluctuations, as flux in temperature can create condensation in your jars and premature spoilage. I usually keep a jar in my pantry for quick, easy access and my extras in the storage room in the basement.
Serving Suggestions
There’s a lot of fun ways to use your dehydrated strawberries!
Add them to:
- salads
- trail mix
- cereal
- yogurt
- homemade granola bars
Homemade Strawberry Powder
You can use your dried strawberries to make a flavor packed strawberry powder!
It’s super simple to do, just toss your fully dried strawberries into a high-speed blender or spice grinder and blitz until you've got a fine powder.
Grind them up into strawberry powder to:
- Add natural flavor and color to frostings, icings, and glazes
- Boost smoothies, ice cream, or yogurt with a fruity punch
- Infuse baked goods like muffins, cookies, cakes, or pancakes with strawberry flavor
- Make DIY strawberry milk or strawberry sugar
Store your strawberry powder in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Just be sure the berries are completely dry before blending, any leftover moisture can lead to clumping or spoilage.
No Dehydrator?
No problem! You can dehydrate your berries in the oven too!
To dehydrate your berries in the oven, prepare baking sheets by lining with parchment paper, and lay the sliced berries on the parchment paper. Bake them in the oven at 170f for 2-3 hours, until the tops are dry to the touch, then flip them over and continue to bake until they are completely dried using the test in the recipe card.
📖 Printable Recipe
How To: Dehydrate Strawberries
Ingredients
- strawberries, as desired
Instructions Start Cooking
- Prepare strawberries for dehydrating by washing them carefully in a sink of cold water with a splash of vinegar. Rinse the berries when they come out of the sink, and allow them to dry completely as excess moisture will prolong the drying time.
- Cut off the tops of the berries, if there is any green stem left in the strawberry use a pairing knife to cut it out.
- Slice the strawberries into 1/4" slices, using either a sharp pairing knife or a mandolin slicer.
- Spread the slices on a dehydrator tray, leaving gaps between the fruit to improve airflow.
- Dehydrate the strawberry slices at 135f for 8-10 hours, or until they are leathery and crisp. To check the doneness of the berries, remove one or two slices from the dehydrator and allow them to cool. Once cooled, slice them or break them down the middle, if any moisture is present, they must be dehydrated longer. The strawberries should be leathery and somewhat pliable. It is better for the berries to be too dry than not dry enough and risk spoilage.
- Once the strawberries are done, allow them to cool on the dehydrator trays for 30-45 minutes.
- Transfer your berries to a sterilized airtight container for storage.
Notes
No dehydrator?
To dehydrate your berries in the oven, prepare baking sheets by lining with parchment paper, and lay the sliced berries on the parchment paper. Bake them in the oven at 170f for 2-3 hours, until the tops are dry to the touch, then flip them over and continue to bake until they are completely dried using the test in the recipe card.Storage
In order to prolong their shelf life, I recommend storing your dehydrated berries in a sterilized airtight container, like a mason jar. The jar should be kept in a cool dark place without temperature fluctuations, as flux in temperature can create condensation in your jars and premature spoilage.how to use dehydrated strawberries
There’s a lot of fun ways to use your dehydrated strawberries! Add them to:- salads
- trail mix
- cereal
- yogurt
- homemade granola bars
- flavour icing
- make strawberry cupcakes
- stir into milk for strawberry flavoured milk or milkshakes
- blend into smoothies
