Darcy, of www.purposefulpantry.com, and Linda, of www.foodstoragemoms.com, both shared some unique and helpful information not long ago on fruit powders. When I find anything that makes my life better, I think of you, our readers and how you might benefit, too. So, I want to tell you about this idea.

First of all, we’re talking about dehydrated food. I have an Excalibur, but have used other makes and models. I’ve even dehydrated using only the sunshine and cheesecloth (to keep the bugs off). Some people dehydrate in their oven, setting it on the lowest temperature and propping the door open with a small bit of wadded tin foil.

Dehydrating is a pleasing alternative to water bath canning, and freezing your fruit. Dehydrated fruit adds nice variety to a food supply.

But more specifically, we’re taking about taking dehydrating one step further. And by way of introduction to the concept, Darcy asked these questions: “Have you ever had a dehydrating project not go quite the way you'd hoped, or found that you might not have liked the texture? Or maybe you've created fruit chips instead of fruit leather, and you don't really want to just throw it away?” Yes, yes, and yes was my response.

Darcy and Linda both explain that when dehydrating misadventures happen, you can always just grind the mistakes into powder. Easy enough, I thought, but what do you DO with these powders? Simply put, almost anything. They’re a simple way to enhance flavor, boost nutrition, and elevate the look and style of everyday foods. For instance:

• Sprinkle fruit powder atop cooked oatmeal (apple powder with a dash of cinnamon is especially tasty). Same idea applies to typically bland cold cereals—boost the nutrition and add some flavor.
• Or add it to your granola; mango or pineapple powder creates a delicious tropical taste.
• Mix fruit powder into plain yogurt for a healthy color and flavor change.
• Flavor and color-change your milk with fruit powder without making it overly sweet.
• Blend fruit powder into salad dressings (homemade or store bought); this works especially well with vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
• Add additional flavor (without extra bulk) to quick breads by including fruit powders. For instance, Darcy mentioned that banana powder does amazing things to any banana bread recipe.
• As with quick breads, you can add an extra burst of flavor (again, without the extra bulk) to muffins and scones with fruit powder. How about blueberry muffins that are actually blue (naturally—no artificial, chemical-laden food colorings involved)?
• And then there’s jazzing up your pancakes, waffles, and crepes. Adding fruit powder to the batter moves them from just breakfast fare to the dessert realm.
• Blend fruit powder into your daily smoothie. A blueberry smoothie with frozen blueberries and blueberry powder is beyond delicious!

One more idea: Consider doing the same thing with some of your dehydrated vegetables. You can add vegetable powder to breads and batters and no one will have any idea there are vegetables in their muffins, pancakes, or dinner rolls. I added tomato powder to my homemade pita pocket bread and they turned out pretty and truly delicious.

Darcy suggests you start experimenting by adding just a tablespoon (which equals about ½ cup of vegetables) to a recipe and go from there.

I’ll close with my own dehydrating tip: You can also get the same result by pureeing fresh produce and dehydrating that. It’s the same approach you use for making fruit leather, but you extend the time so that the puree gets not just chewy, but crisp. You need plastic sheets or parchment paper for this. Just pour thin layers onto your sheets and place them either in the sun, your oven, or a dehydrator. I’ve found the puree tends to dry a little quicker than the whole fruit or vegetable.

    Alice Osborne
    Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com