How To Dehydrate Cherries

Transform fresh, juicy cherries into sweet, tangy treats that can be enjoyed all year round with this easy to follow guide to dehydrating cherries. Packed with taste, these preserved delights add a wonderful touch to your meals. From adding a burst of sweetness to your granolas and baked goods, to enhancing the flavor profile of your salads and desserts, dehydrated cherries offer versatility and convenience.

5 from 1 vote

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 8

Total Time 8 10

Ingredients

1 lb sweet cherries fresh

Instructions

Prepare Cherries:

Rinse 1 lb cherries under warm running water, remove stems.
Spread washed cherries on clean kitchen towel to dry before pitting.

*Optional: Check The Cherries:

Set a wide, heavy bottomed pot with 2-3" of water over medium heat and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, prepare and ice bath.
Add cherries to the water, in 1 lb batches, and boil for 30 seconds.
Remove and plunge into a cold water bath immediately before straining and spreading on a clean kitchen towel.

Pit And Slice:

Once cherries are cleaned and dried, they can be pitted. I've got a little spring loaded cherry pitter to do the heavy lifting for me lately, but I'll include a method below for quickly pitting cherries without a pitter that I know works because we used it for years before I finally got a pitter this year!
Slice pitted cherries as desired. I like to quarter my cherries before dehydrating, but you may prefer halves.
Spread prepared cherries on dehydrator trays.

Dehydrate Cherries:

Spread prepared cherry pieces on dehydrator trays, it's important to keep it in a single layer to improve drying time, efficiency, and consistency.
Dehydrate cherries at 135f until completely dry. Test for doneness by removing a few pieces and allowing them to cool to room temperature before checking them out. Properly dried cherries should be leathery, sticky, and reminiscent of raisins.

Store + Condition:

Once the cherry pieces are completely dried, allow the racks to cool in the dehydrator for 30-45 minutes before transferring to long term storage containers. This allows the heat to dissipate and reduces the chances of condensation forming in your storage container.
While the dried cherry pieces are in storage containers, shake the jar each day or so for the first week and observe the container for signs of moisture.
If there are no signs of moisture, you're good to go, place them in a cool dark place for long-term storage!
If there is evidence of moisture in the container, you must add the cherries back to the dehydrator and dry it longer. After they've been dried the second time, you'll need to go through the conditioning process again.

Notes

how to pit cherries without a pitter

Using a cherry pitter is nice, but if you don't have one there are other options!

Place the cherry stem side up on an empty beer bottle and using a stainless steel straw, chopstick, or kebob stick, punch through the top of the cherry and the pit will fall into the beer bottle below.
Use a small pairing knife and cut the cherries in half to remove the pit. This method works great as they are already halved but, it is more time-intensive and definitely messier!

checking the cherries

Because the cherries aren't skinned prior to dehydrating, they are good candidates for checking. CHECKING is the process of cracking the skin. Quickly blanching the cherries creates many small holes in the skin of the fruit allowing better moisture evaporation and faster drying times.

Another added bonus to this process is that it removes the NATURAL WAX COATING from the skin of the cherries.

If you choose to check them, that's great, if you choose not to check them, that's also great! Both methods work.

Batch:

There is no limit to how many cherries you can dehydrate using this method, aside from your available dehydrator space!

Storage:

Dehydrated cherries, when properly stored in an airtight container, preferably glass jar, in a climate-controlled location will maintain their quality for at least 12 months. Aim to keep yours in a cool, dark location, away from light that can degrade the quality during long term storage.

Rehydrating cherries:

Although dried fruits are most often eaten in their dried state, they can easily be rehydrated. Add desired amount of cherries to a heat safe bowl and add enough boiling water to just cover and allow to stand around 10 minutes or so. They can also be reconstituted by soaking in fruit juice. You'll know the cherry pieces are rehydrated when they are nearly the same size as they were before going into the dehydrator.

If you're adding dehydrated cherries to baking recipes, just toss them into the recipe as you would raisins and the recipe will do the work for you!