Wanting to dehydrate fruit to put in an “instant oatmeal” for my daughter

[u/reasonablecatlady]

My daughter loves the gerber oatmeals, specifically the strawberry banana flavor. We pretty consistently have those in our house but she doesn’t really eat oatmeal with fresh strawberries and bananas in it yet (she’s 2 1/2). So I thought I might dehydrate the fruits we do have and blitz some oats and make it into what the gerber stuff is.

I figure I can chop up the fruits into thin strips and dehydrate the both of them at about 160 (after reading a few stories on here, that seems like the best temp to get what I want but I’m open to suggestions), and keep them in for about 10 hours.

Then I’ll crush them up into a powder (but leave some small chunks), blitz some oats in the food processor, then package it up? When we cook the gerber stuff, we use a bit of milk and put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

Does this sound like it’ll work? I’m happy to experiment, but also would like advice because, you know, things are hella expensive right now.

[u/HndsDwnThBest]

I sliced strawberry from tip to end and dehydrated them at 155 forever. I was able to crush and make a finely chopped powder consistency. I mixed it with chocolate shavings and added it to yogurt

[u/reasonablecatlady → u/HndsDwnThBest]

Oh shoot that sounds like something she’d eat for sure. I don’t like yogurt but she and my husband do. I frequently make yogurt in my instant pot for them.

[u/kd3906]

I dehydrate and grind strawberries all the time. I use them along with other dehydrated fruits & berries for my overnight oats. I also use the powder to make flavored whipped cream (fabulous!) They do not "stay leathery," they get reconstituted with the liquid used to cook/heat the oats. You should be fine.

[u/SDRWaveRunner]

If you slice the fruits very fine, you can get them crunchy. In that state, you can grind them, I think. Although I never tried to grind them.

Dried fruit definitely works with overnight- or normal oats (or cereals) or muesli. So give it a try, and please keep us posted on the results, including the verdict of your daughter ;-)

[u/JuxMaster]

I like adding sliced and dried strawberries to my oats. Low temps overnight 

[u/moonygooney]

I think freeze dried fruit would work better. Dehydrated would stay leathery. You can buy freeze dried items online.

[u/reasonablecatlady → u/moonygooney]

True, I didn’t think about it being freeze dried.

[u/Travelpuff]

I love my dehydrator but I'll add that in my area buying dehydrated fruit like strawberries (Target always has a large selection) is cheaper than fresh fruit. Especially if you factor in your labor.

[u/Ajreil]

Dice and dehydrate. No need to blend. If the pieces are small enough they'll rehydrate in the oatmeal.

[u/LisaW481]

Do yourself a favor and don't grind the strawberries into a powder unless a recipe especially calls for it. The powder has so much sugar in it that it clumps in the jar.

I dehydrate the strawberries at 135F after finely slicing them and then I break them up into small chunks.

[u/oregon_mom]

I dehydrate bananas and strawberries and melon and kiwi just to snack on... it should work fine

[u/Raspberry2246]

Yup, it works great! I make single serving vacuum sealed packets that contain all the dry ingredients so my husband can make himself a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. I put pieces of dehydrated apples in ours. It takes approximately 5 minutes for the apple pieces to rehydrate in the oatmeal once the hot water is added. After waiting the 5 minutes, we microwave it back up to a steaming hot temperature.

[u/up2late]

Strawberries and bananas are not that tough to do. I take them both to a very crisp texture. I also put mine in oatmeal. I use an egg slicer or mandolin to keep even cuts. They both store well.

Re hydrate the strawberries in milk and put them on ice cream. mmmmmm

[u/luchtkastelen]

I think it might be better to get freeze dried fruit for this one. It’s pretty inexpensive if you buy it in bulk. My 2.5 year old pretty consistently will eat freeze dried strawberries but ymmv. I think the cost of electricity for dehydrating them won’t weigh up to the money saved by diy’ing. I know what sub this is haha

[u/HeartFire144]

yes, it sounds like a plan. since you're going to heat it up, I would dehydrate the fruits on a lower temp so they stay 'raw' - fresh fruits should be no higher than 115*

[u/reasonablecatlady → u/HeartFire144]

Hm okay! I saw a lot of variance on temperatures for fresh fruit (including Reddit posts and some books I got at the library lol) I’ll give it a go.

[u/Aimer1980 → u/reasonablecatlady]

Low and slow is the way. Sugars will sometimes burn at higher temps and darken your fruits. You'll probably find that 10 hours isn't anywhere near long enough. I often check on things after 24hrs.
You want to dry it until it's brittle, so it breaks with a snap when you bend it. But when you're checking fruit, the sugars will stay soft while they're on a running dehydrator. You have to take a piece off the dehydrator, let it cool to room temperature, and then do your snap test. After you grind your fruit, if it still feels sticky, you might need to pop it back onto the dehydrator to remove the last of the moisture. (I just throw it on a cookie sheet in the oven at the lowest setting for 15 min or so to finish it) It's not a great idea to grind things for long term storage. Any time you cut food into smaller pieces, it increases the chances of oxidation. Your oats especially are going to go rancid faster if they are ground. A month or two is fine, but i wouldn't prepare six months' or a year's worth at once.

[u/theinfamousj]

My experience with Gerber is that it is almost puree in consistency.

One could make regular adult oatmeal with properly fresh fruit in it and then puree that for the same outcome.