Name: Dehydrating Peaches
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 480 min
Total time: 490 min
Ingredients: fresh peaches; lemon juice, optional

Dehydrating peaches is so easy with my step-by-step guide and a great way to preserve fresh peaches to use in delicious recipes like peach crisp and peach cobbler.

Jump to Recipe

Dehydrating peaches is the easiest way to preserve fresh peaches this summer so that you can enjoy your favorite peach recipes year-round. I mean, would anyone turn away a bite of peach cobbler in the middle of winter? These particular peaches were FREE from a tree in my mother’s yard. She had about twice this many and sent me these for my own preserving. Today, I’m getting another box about this big as well.

But it isn’t just peaches I enjoy dehydrating. Oh no, my dehydrator has been going nonstop this week as I make tomato chips to snack on and dehydrated ground beef. But we need to get it while we can and put it up for when we need it later!

Keep reading to learn exactly how I dehydrate peaches. It is very simple but truly, dehydrating fruit is one of the simplest and old-fashioned ways to preserve a harvest of any kind of fresh fruit. I especially love that once it is done, the dried food doesn’t take up any room in my refrigerator or freezer.

All you need is fresh peaches and a dehydrator, although I’ve also included below instructions on how to make dehydrated peach chips in the oven. Now let’s get started!

Recipe Ingredients

Fresh peaches
Fresh or bottled lemon juice (optional)

Step-by-Step Guide to Dehydrating Peaches

If you decide to pre-treat, mix up a bowl with equal parts lemon juice and water.

This is about 2 cups of the mixture.

Peel and cut up your peaches into slices. Remove and discard any bruises or bad spots.

You can slice them thick or thin, it is up to you. Usually, when I purchase dried peaches at the grocery store, the peach chips are just peach halves. However, I prefer to do mine in slices.

The thicker the slice, the longer it will take to dehydrate, but I don’t think they take a really long time either way.

Bruises and “bad spots” on fruit are areas that are more susceptible to bacteria so we want to get rid of these before we do our preserving.

As you are peeling and slicing your peaches, just drop them in the lemon juice mixture.

Once you have enough to fill up a dehydrator tray, strain them out and load up the tray.

Like this.

If you’re not pre-treating, just peel and place the sliced peaches on the trays.

Yes, these are white peaches. They taste amazing but the color drives my Mama crazy because when folks just look at a dish you baked ’em in, they look like apples.

Keep going until you have all of your dehydrator trays filled with fruit slices and then dehydrate at 135 degrees for 8 to 12 hours.

Make sure they are dry and then allow the dry peaches to cool completely. Store them in mason jars or whatever airtight container jumps out at you first from the cabinet.

Enjoy!

Storage

Store your dehydrated peaches in a sealed container in a cool dark place like a pantry. They’ll last for up to 12 months.

Recipe FAQs

Do you need to pre-treat the fruit before dehydrating it?

I generally do not pre-treat my fresh fruit with lemon juice before dehydrating it, which is why it’s an optional ingredient. That includes apples, bananas, and even peaches. Pretreating can help lessen browning (I haven’t seen much of a difference though) but browning is a cosmetic thing and that doesn’t bother me.

I am doing it in this case because I don’t know when I’ll get around to using these peaches (hopefully in the next two years) and they are going into my “deeper” food storage. When you dehydrate peaches, you lose a little bit of the vitamin C and by giving them a little bath in this mixture first, it adds a little more vitamin C so this helps balance it out.

What food dehydrator do you use?

I have two dehydrators, both are Excalibur: the Excalibur 9 Tray Deluxe and the Excalibur 5 Tray Deluxe Dehydrator. I have used other dehydrators in the past and have found Excalibur to be the most efficient and absolute best for the job. They dehydrate all trays and all sides of every tray faster and more evenly than other ones I have used.

I do feel a dehydrator is a great investment for a family because it will allow you to easily preserve fresh fruits and veggies that you grow yourself, are gifted, or that would have otherwise gone bad before being consumed by ye olde family. My dehydrator is as important to me as my refrigerator. More so even, because the food I preserve in my dehydrator doesn’t require electricity to remain fresh.

How do you dehydrate peaches in an oven?

It’s not as quick or efficient as using a dehydrator, but here’s how to dehydrate peaches in the oven:

Place your peach slices on wire racks and place them on top of the oven racks.
You then want to set the oven to its lowest temperature (120 to 125 degrees hopefully) and ensure the fan is running. Airflow is key to dehydrating peaches. Keep an eye on the peaches, as they might take anywhere from 6 to 12 hours to dehydrate.
If your oven doesn’t go this low, set it to its lowest temperature and leave the door slightly ajar for that essential airflow.

What do you do with dehydrated peaches?

Here are some ideas for what to do with your dehydrated peaches:

Eat them as a snack! My daughter loves having homemade dried peaches in her lunchbox at school.
Make my Great Grandmother Lela’s Fried Peach Pies Bars. They’re the best thing ever!
Rehydrate them by covering them with water and bringing them just to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer until tender and then drain. Use them in any recipe you would use fresh or canned peaches, such as:

You’ll find that dehydrated peaches, even once they are rehydrated, retain a greater flavor punch and sweetness that really amps up the peach flavor in any dish far more than fresh or canned peaches do.

For more posts on dehydrating, check out: