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Dehydrating fruits with Invoq Bake: A step-by-step guide to patisserie perfection
Dehydrating fruits is a valuable technique in patisserie, offering bakers a way to preserve and intensify flavours, enhance texture, and add versatility to their creations.
28 janvier 2024
Why dehydrate fruits?
Preserve, enhance and inspire.
The dehydration process removes a significant amount of water content, thus concentrating the fruit’s natural flavours, leaving an intense taste compared to fresh fruit. When incorporated into pastries, these flavours become more pronounced, creating a more flavourful and enjoyable experience for the consumer.
The texture is another aspect, as the dehydration results in a chewy and slightly crispy consistency, which adds a pleasant contrast to the soft and moist texture of many pastries. This textural variation can enhance the overall eating experience, making the pastry more interesting and appealing.
Dehydrated Fruits – Enhancing Baking with Longevity, Consistency, and Beauty
Removing the moisture from fruits significantly extends their shelf life making it possible to store for langer periods. This is particularly beneficial for bakers, as they can have a ready supply of dried fruits on hand for various recipes without worrying about them going bad. This also gives an advantage for seasonal availability ensuring consistency al year-round.
In some pastry recipes, the excess moisture from fresh fruits can negatively affect the final product, making it soggy or causing other texture issues. Using dehydrated fruits allows bakers to incorporate fruit flavours without compromising the texture or structure of the pastry.
And finally, dehydrated fruits can also serve as attractive decorations for pastries, adding visual appeal to cakes, tarts, cookies, and other baked goods. Their vibrant colours and unique shapes can make desserts look more enticing and aesthetically pleasing.
How to dehydrate with Invoq Bake oven?
Simple, Precise and Effective.
Your Invoq Bake can be a useful tool for dehydrating fruit, whether it is to make candied fruit for cakes or crispy fruit for toppings.
Using the convection mode, the fan will ensure to circulate hot air around all items speeding up the process. The process is similar to when baking merengue. Cook with a low fan speed of 20-30% and ensure open exhaust throughout the process.
When dehydrating fruit, it’s important to use low temperatures to avoid cooking the fruit. The ideal temperature for dehydrating fruit is around 75-90°C (167-194°F). Set your Invoq oven to this temperature and let it run until the fruit is fully dehydrated.
Optimal Trays and Sheets for Perfect Fruit Dehydration
The trays or sheet you use to dehydrate the fruit can make a big difference in the quality of the final product. Use accessories with a non-stick surface to obviously make it easy to remove the finished products, but also due to preservation of appearance, and the delicate dehydrated fruits are much less likely to get damaged or lose shape when you remove them. As a side benefit, non-stick trays and sheet are easy to clean, which is especially useful when working with sugar-based recipes. We recommend our non-stick baking tray or a silicone mat.
Efficient Overnight Dehydration – Making the Most of Your Invoq Oven
Lastly, you can benefit from hours when the oven is not in use (e.g., overnight) to prepare your dehydrated fruit. In this way, your already preheated oven is working for you, when you are off, and you free up capacity for your daily operation. 10+ hours will have the fruits ready, when you return in the morning.
By following these tips, you can easily benefit from your Invoq oven when dehydrating fruit and achieve perfectly dehydrated and delicious snacks.
Some fruits are more suitable for drying than others. We recommend these to give you the best possible result:
Apricots , Apples, Bananas, Blueberries , Cherries, Cranberries, Figs, Goji berries, Limes, Oranges, Peaches, Pears, Pineapple, Plums, Strawberries.
« Are you preparing dehydrated fruits for drinks or toppings, where perfection in appearance is key, I recommend that you turn the fruit pieces after 1 hour before leaving them overnight. This will give a more uniform result, »
– Culinary Development Chef, Jens Bach Sørensen