For years, I’ve had the itch to make my own raisins (ever since I got a dehydrator). About a year ago, I finally made my first attempt. A very successful homemade raisin (beginner’s luck!) that I then used in a recipe for the Light and Tasty section (the crumbled shortcrust bars 😊).

Since today’s Light and Tasty theme is grapes, I thought it was the right day to tell you all about my dried grapes, which I made again and turned out well once more. I no longer have doubts: it can be done!

Among all the things I’ve dried so far, raisins have kept my dehydrator busy the longest.
Initially, I thought it was due to the appliance, which you know is a very simplified model, but after researching, I understood that the time it takes, which seemed very long to me, is actually standard and doesn’t depend on my basic dehydrator or my inexperience in drying grapes. You just need to know it (in the sense of being aware).

After all, just to draw a parallel, the long rising times with sourdough once seemed difficult to manage, while once I understood the “operating logic” mentally, it wasn’t that big of a deal anymore. It’s really just a matter of habit.

Besides, the nice thing about the dehydrator is that it works by itself. The only thing I do is turn it off at night (for safety and because the noise, though minimal, bothers me in the silence of the night), but those who have more professional dehydrators might not have issues leaving them on continuously.

If you have the patience to follow me in this experiment, I intend to continue and expand my self-production of dried raisins by also trying to dry them in the oven, to see if there are differences in timing and yield, and by trying other varieties of grapes, perhaps with smaller berries.
Because starting with large table grapes… but I mean… I could have thought of that earlier, right???!! 🤪

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Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Medium
Preparation time: 2 Days
Cooking methods: No cooking
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Seasonality: Summer, Fall

Ingredients

grapes (450-500 g per each dehydrator tray)

Tools

Dehydrator

Preparation

The instructions are really simple:
Remove the grapes from the stem.
Wash and dry them.
Place them on the dehydrator trays.
Turn on the dehydrator.
Wait about 48 hours (or more, I’ll explain more below).
Some clarifications:
1. The temperature must be high, so those with a dehydrator with temperature control can set it to 150-160°F. Those with a dehydrator like mine that has only two temperature levels should set it to the highest (in my dehydrator: both lights on).
2. The drying time cannot be fixed, as it depends on the size of the grape. Obviously, smaller grapes take less time to dry, about two days. Using table grapes, which have very large grapes, it can take up to three days.
Specifically, my grapes (as you can see clearly in the photo below, they are big table grapes) behaved as follows: starting from a weight of 450 g, they reached a weight of about 120 g after exactly 47 hours of drying (not continuous but during the day, with a night stop).
Here are three photos in sequence. Fresh grapes at the start of drying:
After 12 hours, they look like this:
After 38 hours:
As mentioned, these table grapes had some very large berries. In this case, when the smaller berries are ready, it’s good to remove them from the grill and extend the drying for those that are still soft inside.
Alternatively, cut the larger grapes in half, so they take the same time as the smaller ones (tested. 😊 Can you spot the two berries cut in half in the photos? 😅).
Or choose a variety of grapes with smaller berries. (I hope to try wine grapes soon!).
Since it’s good to use the device at full capacity to amortize the energy expenditure, at a certain point I decided to take advantage of the long drying times of the grapes to simultaneously dry some energy bars. Drying time of the bars is 7-8 hours, so you can make plenty, take advantage too! 😉
While deciding how to use my homemade raisins… meanwhile, ehm… I ate some while writing this recipe! 😃
Here’s a preview:
For now, I did a test which, as the photo shows, turned out excellently!