Follow Up: Dehydrated Mini Marshmallows in a Magic Mill Dehydrator

 Did you think I forgot to update my previous post? lol  I wish it was that simple.  No, I have been spending the last two days learning a few interesting facts regarding the dehydration of marshmallows... completely by accident. 

First, my guessing for processing the marshmallows was way off.  Waaaaay off!  In trying to double check this error, a trip to a local DG was necessary to purchase more marshmallows.  Instead of getting the store brand, they had Jet Puffed on sale.  So, two bags were thrown into my cart with hopes of pinning a correct dehydrating time down.  All internet info suggests dehydrating at 151 degrees.  The Magic Mill has 149 or 159 degrees.  I have been going with the closest at 149 degrees.  Knowing this would throw off the time, the suggested time of 3 to 5 hours probably wasn't going to hold true for my minis.  Which is fine.  Interestingly enough, mine keep coming in at 9 to 10 hours.  I wish I could tell you the second run confirmed my results to 9 or 10, but an interesting issue arose to keep me from pinpointing an exact time.  Either way, my earlier guess was wrong.  Although I can unequivocally say this, 9 to 10 hours works for my Magic Mill.  Honestly, I would try another around, but my house is overfilled with these crunchy puff balls right now.  lol  

This brings me to my second discovery; A fine wine may get better with age... not so with a sugary marshmallow.  My observant spidey senses were taking a brake during my shopping excursion.  The sale was a "two for", and I grabbed two bags only looking at the top bag.  Ugh!  When I got home, the first bag had bouncy marshmallows.  The second bag had sticky, going yellow marshmallows.  In fairness to the DG, the best buy date was October of 2022, but I am here to attest... They were past their prime.  I loaded the dehydrator anyways, after physically pulling most of the marshmallows apart in the second bag.   The dehydrator was loaded with 20 ounces (2 bags).  My time test was ruined by spot checking marshmallows from the bottom three shelves.  The shelves which held the October marshmallows.  Their decomposing state (I was soon to find out. Insert smacking of forehead.)  threw off any possibility of dehydrating properly.    At any rate, I kept extending the time, got tired (for real, it was after my bedtime... lol), and on the last round jumped 2 1/2 hours making the full dehydrating time 10 hours total.  In the morning, I awakened to the process being complete...   But now, let me show you the finished marshmallows...

Exhibit A:  Look at the fresh marshmallows once finished.  They literally burst with crunchy exploding flavor.  Seriously, if you're on a diet, a few of these would calm any sugary craving.   Look at their dusky yet puffy exterior... Dehydrated perfection!

Exhibit B:  (Brace yourself) It was hard to get the right angle on these, but this is what the others turned out like.  They had a glassy, wavy, bubbly exterior.  I am assuming was caused by the sugar becoming more hydrated in the breaking down process.  Am I picky about outward appearances?  Absolutely not.  The problem came when they were bit into.  Slightly underdone crunchy turning into major teeth sticking chewy.  Nasty!  They tasted like old marshmallows.  Not all of marshmallows on the three bottom trays were bad.  Those handful of marshmallows in the bag which had still retained a soft powdery exterior were perfect.  So please, learn from my purchase, watch the dates and make sure you shake the bags you buy.  Loose, powdery dull, white marshmallows are the ones to dehydrate.  Just because the date is within selling fresh doesn't mean the product is viable.   It is a taste test you don't want to endure... Trust me!  Blaaaah...

So, what have I learned from this experiment?  First, my hubby thinks I am nuts after dehydrating so many marshmallows.  Well, nothing new there!  lol   Second, marshmallows for sure take about 9 to 10 hours to dehydrate in a Magic Mill at 149 degrees.  Third, a six shelve Magic Mill will hold 2 bags (20 ounces) of marshmallows easily using mesh underneath.  And finally, the resulting dehydrated marshmallows can be vacuumed sealed in 7 pint jars... Well, more likely 7 1/2, but they were rolling everywhere, and I kept eating the stray ones!  ;) 

Onward to the 20 pounds of potatoes I just bought.  :)

Dehydrated Mini Marshmallows with Magic Mill

 Dehydrated mini marshmallows have been on my "to do" list for a while.  Why might you ask?  Well, I love hot chocolate.  (Not so much the store bought, but the kind made from the recipe found on my blog here.)  Marshmallows are so tempting to buy shopping.  Even more tempting during the holiday season when all brands can be found at rock bottom prices.  My problem lies in the inability to use them up fast enough.  They eventually get a funky color and start to stick together... even before the best buy date. :(    About a month ago, I came across prepper post regarding dehydrating marshmallows.  The prepper dehydrated them at 115 for over 10 hours.  Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.  Instead of wasting the partially dehydrated marshmallows, the Magic Mill got turned up to 151 degrees for 4 hours, and the marshmallows turned out nice and crunchy.  Not quite as sugary as Lucky Charms Cereal but having the same texture.  Score!

The dehydrated marshmallows do a slow melt in a steaming cup of hot chocolate.  Perfect for me!   I purchased three more bags of minis to dehydrate and put in pint ball jars and vacuum seal with my food saver for the possibility of long-term storage.  My Magic Mill with its 6 shelves can hold 2 bags of minis with little effort.  A third bag probably could've been squeezed in, but it was MIA when I started the set up...  So, it will go in the next round!  ;)  

The Magic Mill has been set for 151 degrees at 4 hours.  It was tempting to set it for 5 hours, but if four works, energy has been saved.  

Noteworthy:  The Magic Mill has a square grid on the shelves.  Quite a few of the minis found their way through during the loading process. Knowing that the minis will get slightly larger during the drying process, there is also the possibility of them wedging between the grids.  With this in mind, I decided to use my mesh and honey combed plastic covers on the shelves.  The marshmallows want to roll all over, but this extra effort is a necessary step.  

More tomorrow with the final outcome!  :)

Dehydrating Sweet Corn with a Magic Mill Dehydrator

Preservation madness has been going on around our homestead as of late.  I have so much to share and am going back to the beginning to tell my adventures.  While finding various ways to preserve plums, the sweetcorn in our area was ripening.  A combination of great farming friends brought some of the best tasting corn into our home with open invitations to pick more.  How wonderful is that?  After eating sweet corn at dinner for two weeks straight and filling the freezer with small, portioned Food Saver bags, I decided to try my hand at dehydrating sweet corn.  From all of my studies, the dehydrated corn, stored properly, will last for years.  (Not that I intend on holding it that long.)  I was equally intrigued by some adventurous souls milling some of their corn and making corn bread.  You know that Mock Mill will be coming soon! ;)  

After eating and freezing the sweet corn gifted to us at each of our places of work from some awesome farmers, Mr. Hollow was kind enough to take up an offer to go pick at one of his friend's farm whose family had already harvested what they needed.  Once I started processing that haul, hubby's bosses' field ripened, and he was given the opportunity to pick even more.  (So many wonderful people to be surrounded by on a daily basis. We are truly blessed.)  Both of my fridges were constantly filled with corn on a rotating schedule.  lol   The dehydrating of the corn was a little bit easier for me to put together and was easy to manage after a full day at work.

First, shuck the first dozen or so ears of corn, get the smaller corn pot boiling with water, blanch the corn for approximately 8 minutes, and slice the kernels from the cobs.  I found working with the smaller pot allowed the first batch to cool before the second batch was blanched.  Then, I could begin the slicing with the first ears out of the pot, allowing the second batch to cool as it waited, and not hold up the assembly line of slicing.  **Additional note...  If you decide to blanch a larger batch and refrigerate, make sure you break up the slabs into individual (or close to it) kernels.  Once they are cold, it is a real bugger to try to pry the slabs apart.   Ask me how I know! ;) 

 

My Magic Mill dehydrator has six shelves.  It arrived with two plastic screens to aid in the dehydrating of smaller items.  I ordered some BPA free dehydrating mesh to cut and fit for the remaining four shelves.  After the corn kernels were broken from the slabs, the process of loading the trays lined with mesh began.  I didn't get to freaked out about individual kernels touching, but I did not mound the corn either.  Each level of the Magic Mill held approximately 2 medium ears of corn.  After researching the internet for temps and times, I found my corn took a bit longer to dry.  So, in case you are using a Magic Mill as well, it took my corn 11 hours at 131 degrees.  If you go shorter and it doesn't feel dry, just turn the dehydrator back on and give it a few more hours.  No worries.  You can't mess this step up!  

How do you know when it is done?  Give it a pinch.  If the kernels are as hard as candy, you are done.  They will break when you try to bend them and will have a non-tooth-breaking crunch when you chew them.  Yes, I did say chew it. lol  Actually, a nice flavor as well.  

Each level was left to sit in the dehydrator for a few hours to cool and produced slightly less than a cup full of dried corn.  I was very impressed with that!   The corn was moved into a gallon Ziploc where it remained until all the corn was processed.  Then, I took some clean pint jars, some used ball lids reheated in water, and tried out my Food Saver vacuum ball jar sealer.  And guess what?  It worked wonderfully!  Plus, it was another great way to keep using the spent jar lids!  :)   I was accidentally lucky enough to have purchased a Food Saver with the extension for one.  Our combined effort put 11 pints of dehydrated sweet corn on the shelf.  I couldn't be happier.  Plus, it was an effortless and non-taxing project for during the work week.  It will definitely be an annual event should the supply chain present itself again.

At the beginning of the week, I made some beef stew and almost forgot my stash of corn, since this was my first year attempting it.  It was added in the broth stage and took approximately 20 to 30 minutes to rehydrate as the stew simmered way beyond that.  The corn tasted and had the texture of having just been sliced off the cob.  Even my hubby was impressed!  Now that is saying something!!  Also, one extra bonus...  Opening a jar is like smelling fresh sweet corn in the middle of summer.  A definite pick-me-up on a chilly fall or winter day.  :) 

Preservation of Plums

When I was growing up, my Dad loved his fruit trees.  Unfortunately, the trees never produced as much fruit or as healthy of fruit as he had hoped for.  It certainly didn't stop him from finding sources and bringing home loads of fresh fruits for us to enjoy.  Probably one of the main reasons I have to go to the apple orchards in the fall.  ;)   He often told the story of how my Grandma sent my Dad and his siblings to pick apples at a neighbor's house.  Even though the neighbor wasn't going to use the apples himself, my Grandma insisted on sending over fifty cents for the right to harvest the apples.  That was a long time ago...  I grew up to live in a very small rural town and work in the middle of the town I live in.  There are so many kind people with farms who extend the kindness of harvesting apples off their trees.  I guess those ideals are still alive and well in certain areas of America. And hey, those apples make the best pies, cobbler, and sauce!  :) 

My son and his wife purchased a small farm with two elderly apple trees.  In a good year, the number of apples can be overwhelming.  The fruit trees are definitely happy.  So, my son decided to plant some more trees... a pear, another apple, and a plum tree.  The pear is doing amazing, is doubling its production from last year, and the fruit should be ready to pick soon.  The apple hasn't produced yet but is steadily growing.  The plum tree decided this year was the year to have a crazy harvest.  It is a tiny tree barely taller than me, but it produced a 5-gallon pail and a half of produce.  If I could bottle the smell of those plums, the fragrance would knock your socks off!  Just splendidly plummy!!

It warms my heart for the kids to be expanding their farm in a self-sustaining way.  Since both of them were busy this year, I offered to help preserve the fruit.  Not gonna lie... It was a bigger production than I thought, but all went smoothly.

The first weigh in was for the jam... This kid doesn't mess with jelly.  lol  The grand total was 24 of the fruit jars and 10 pint jars.  If you haven't had plum jam, you are really missing out on a unique flavor.  It does sound like a lot until you start thinking of all the possibilities...  My daughter in law makes homemade ice cream.  Can you imagine a vanilla plum swirl?  I sure can!

   

With the jam numbers being pretty high, I moved on to dehydrating.  This used up 62 more plums.  

Dehydrating was a new experiment.  I rather liked the tart yet sweet product and found some recipes using rehydrated plums.   Dehydration definitely has possibilities.

 

My grandson has been doing his share of eating right off the tree.  After sampling one of the plums myself, I cannot blame him. ;)  My son and I pulled a few of the firm plums out for him to munch on in the coming weeks, and the remaining over ripe plums were turned into syrup.  Instead of straining the boiled plums, I used an emulsion blender and gave the syrup some texture.  Wow!  Even better than the jam in my opinion.

With the plums done for the year, the apples have started to fall from one of the older trees.  Although some will become animal feed, there were plenty for me to harvest.  Most were bigger than my hand and in great shape. :)  Not sure if they will become pies or sauce yet.  Which reminds me, I need to go back out tomorrow to scour for some more.  Most of the tree hasn't ripened yet.  I suspect these are falling from the very top.  And I'm hoping to get ahead of the huge harvest and not get taken off guard like with the plums. lol  What a blessing these trees are.  My Dad is watching their success... I am sure.   Now the kids have added grapes and blueberries to their fruit grove.   Wonderful times to come. :)

Memories of the Fall ~ Kitchen Aid Fruit & Veggie Strainer Review

I thought I would reminisce about the last apple harvest with a review of Kitchen Aid's Fruit & Vegetable Strainer.  A perfect topic for today as I sit with a cold and slight case of laryngitis.  Could be worse right?  On the bright side, my mug of chamomile tea is being sweetened with some local honey purchased during the summer.  This unfortunate affliction has given me  a reason to test out the home remedy property of the honey.   I am finding the taste is wonderful combination and will get me away from white sugar as my "go to sweetener" in the future. 

Okay, back to the topic... My mind has always been drawn to a faster way to do applesauce.  Okay, faster and a whole lot cleaner way to make applesauce!    The Kitchen Aid Fruit & Vegetable Strainer has been on my wishlist at Amazon for a long time.  So when Farmerboy and his lovely wife purchased their farm complete with two gorgeous apple trees, I knew the time was right.  Here is a pictorial review of my first harvest season using the Kitchen Aid attachment.

The farmyard has two unbelievable apple trees.  One is some strain of Golden Delicious and the other is possibly a Snow apple mix.  The trees ripen about a month apart which is perfect for processing the apples.  Many families benefited this year.  The harvest was so huge that Mr. Hollow and I did not bother visiting any orchards this year; although, I did miss my Macintosh apples with melted caramels!  *sigh*   There is always next year.  ;)

The prep work was minimal for making the sauce.  I cored the apples, quarter them and boiled them with a little bit of water until soft.  (Next year I may use the trick of using a little cider instead of water for an extra kick in some of the batches!)

 

 

 I let the bowl cool as the next batch of apples began to cook.  It was a really efficient production line.  :) 

I did purchase the top feeding platform separately.  It holds a lot more apples to feed into the tube of the strainer.  Definitely a must have add on for me, since it kept the work area free of spillage.  I would highly recommend it.  The small area the unit comes with is just asking for a ladle to over shoot the mark.  :(

 

 

 

The apples (skins and all) are funneled by a spooled device down a metal cone with holes all over it.  The apple sauce is forced out of the holes and runs backwards out the bottom flute.  The skins are extruded from the whole in front into its own bowl.  How easy is that?  Instant pig or chicken feed!

 



Dark skins make for a pink sauce with these particular apples.  The sauce is beautiful and smooth.  I do like to add sweetener to my sauce.  So, it was popped back into a pot, sweetener added, brought up to a boil and canned.  No splattering-- No sweating-- No mess!

Seriously, this is all that was left from the apples! 

The process was a fraction of the time from the old way.  Clean up was a breeze.  It made me wonder what took me so long to try the strainer attachment.  The Kitchen Aid Fruit & Vegetable Strainer is a complete winner in my book!

Apple Pie with a Caramel Streusel Topping ~ Recipe

The fall weather in Northern Illinois has been absolutely beautiful.  The colors are a little late in the trees, but the temps have been comfortably cool.  My hubby left for a trip back in September and returned with a bushel of McIntosh apples.  He was passing through Gayes Mills and picked them up as seconds for $20.00. 

 

Since then, our family has definitely eaten our fill of caramel apples!  :)  So this weekend was perfect cool weather for canning some applesauce and making some pies.  I started with the sauce and worked my way through 25 jars.  Then, I decided to make 14 half circle hand sized pies.  With the apples left over, I decided to try a new pie recipe.  It was an apple pie with a streusel topping.  The pie was a big hit here which is great since I froze two for later. ;)

 

The recipe calls for a one crust pie shell... bought or homemade is your preference.  I made my pie in a 8 inch tin and the apples cooked down fine.  McIntosh cook down a little more than other varieties.  I made some alterations to some recipes that I found on line.  So here is my version:

 



 

 

Apple Pie with a Caramel Streusel Topping

7                      medium sized McIntosh apples (any tart apple would do)
2 T                  flour
1/2 rounded t  cinnamon
1/4 rounded t  nutmeg
1/4 c               white sugar (could use 1/3 c if the apples are really tart)

When the pie crust is ready in the plate, peel and slice the apples into a bowl.    Mix the apple slices, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and white sugar together.  Add them to the pie crust arranging them into a mound. 

Streusel Topping

3/4 c                 brown sugar
1/2 c                 flour
1/2 rounded t    cinnamon
1/3 c                 butter softened

Mix all the ingredients with a fork to combine.  Break up the topping and evenly cover the apples.

Put the pie in a 350 degree preheated oven.  I had the pie tin sitting in a glass 13x9 cake dish situated half way down in the oven,  and it baked for 60 minutes.  Since all ovens differ and my dish had sides that hindered the distribution of heat, check your pie at 40 minutes and decide from there.   I kept checking by pushing on the crust to make sure it was firmed up.

We didn't eat our pie until later in the day.  Mr. Hollow likes his warmed up a little, and mine was straight from the pan.  The one thing we agreed on was a caramel drizzle topping. For that, I unwrapped 6 Brachs caramels  and placed them in a small bowl with a couple of teaspoons of water.  The caramels were microwaved in 15 second intervals until bubbling.  Then, it is simply stir and drizzle.  The pie was absolutely delicious!  Packed with the best flavors of fall.  :)

Dehydrating Bananas with the Nesco Snackmaster Pro

Farmerboy wanted a dehydrator for Christmas.  I researched all the different kinds on Amazon.  The Nesco Snackmaster Pro seemed to be the best fit for his current dehydrating needs.  On Christmas morning, the new appliance was brought into our kitchen; and as soon as he could gather his seasonings, Farmerboy put the machine through a workout by mixing up some deer jerky and dehydrating it (which was extremely good).  But after the jerky craze was over,  the dehydrator sat.  Meanwhile during a family trip, I purchased some dehydrated bananas for a snack.  They tasted awful and were coated in a heavy sugar.  When we got home, we gave a couple to Davey (the pet rat), and he seemed to like them.  Unfortunately, the unhealthy amount of sugar did not make them a suitable snack  him or us.  Then I got to thinking, why not try to dehydrate my own bananas.  How hard could it be?

 



Now, I can answer that question.  It is not hard at all!  Dehydrating bananas is so simple.  Farmerboy's Snackmaster came with five tiers.  I purchased two extra, bringing the total to seven which seemed like a nice size.  It takes 29 bananas (fully ripe with maybe a few brown flecks) cut into 1/4 inch slices (minus the ends) to fill all of the trays.   The slices should be arranged on each tier without touching. Once arranged, a spray head screwed onto a lemon juice bottle can be used to spritz the slices from the top and bottom.  (I purchased a $1 spray bottle from the Dollar Store.  The spray nozzle fit the lemon juice bottle perfectly!)  When all the trays are filled and stacked, the lid with the motor and fan enclosed can be placed on top.  The setting should be set for Fruits and Vegetables 135 degrees.  Then, the dehydrator can be left to work its magic for 12 to 13 hours.  How uncomplicated is that? 

After allowing the slices to cool in the dehydrator, this is how they looked. They have a consistency of fruit leather, and the lemon gives them a slightly tangy yet sweet taste.  Delicious! 

Here is my jar.  Davey's sits next to his cage.  Well actually, he got a quart and a half, but the half a quart is long gone. ;)   Yep, 29 bananas yield 2 and a half quarts dehydrated.  They make such a great snack.  And the best part...  they never get brown and mushy! :)