How to make prunes at home

Prunes on the shelves of grocery stores look beautiful and brilliant. But often there is no naturalness behind this brilliance. To give dried fruits a similar appearance, an unscrupulous producer treats them with sulfur or liquid smoke, covers them with a thin layer of wax or glycerin. There is little benefit from such a product, moreover, it costs a lot. Therefore, good housewives have long learned how to cook prunes on their own. Indeed, in the summer in the harvest year, plum can be bought very cheaply. Cooking does not take much time and effort. Therefore, with very little effort, you can provide yourself and your family with a useful and tasty product for the whole winter.

Prunes are very beneficial for the human body. It is actively used in the fight against constipation and other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Prunes cleanse the intestines efficiently but gently. In addition, after drying, prunes retain all the nutrients and vitamins that were contained in the plum. But how to prepare the product so that it remains useful, safe, and also preserved until spring?

The recipe for natural prunes

This recipe is nothing more, just a plum. Such prunes are suitable for people who adhere to the rules of a healthy diet. Let's start cooking a natural treat.

1. Prunes are best dried from the plum variety Vengerka. In this case, you will receive a product that is as close as possible in appearance to the store. Although, in fact, prunes can be prepared from any plum, even round.
2. Fruits for drying should be ripe, but moderately hard and fleshy. If you buy plums, make sure that the flesh is easily separated from the bone. For drying, choose only strong fruits without wormholes. Sluggish and shriveled plums should be set aside.
3. Some try to get rid of a whitish coating on the surface of the fruit. In order for the plum to persist for a long time, it really should be washed off. However, this is not easy to do, so we will soak the fruits in alkaline water. Dissolve a little soda in a basin (a teaspoon of three liters of water) and dip the plum into the solution. After a while, it will be easy to clean and rinse under running water.
4. Fruits are best dried without stones. Small plums can be left with a bone, but in winter you will have to be very careful not to spoil the tooth on an undetected bone.
5. After removing the seeds, the fruits must be cut in half. In the form of halves, it is much easier to dry them.
6. The next step is blanching. Put a pot of water on the fire and bring it to a boil. Dip the halves of the plums into the water and wait 5-10 minutes. After that, remove the plums and immediately transfer them to cold (possibly ice) water. Remember, the fruits should be soft, but resilient and not cooked.
7. After that, put the halves on a baking sheet in one layer and dry for 2-3 hours at a temperature of 60-80 degrees. In this case, open the oven so as not to overdry the product. Turn the drain halves several times over the entire time.
8. When you get the plums, leave them for another day in a ventilated place - on the windowsill or on the balcony. Cover the fruit with gauze to protect against insects. After a day, the drain can be stored.

This is a simple recipe for natural plums. But there is one more that sweet tooth is sure to enjoy.

Sweet prune recipe

This is a recipe for sweet prunes, from which children will be delighted.

1. We select and prepare the fruits, as in the previous recipe. In this recipe we remove the bone, but the drain in half is not cut. Let it remain intact.
2. We fill the plum with sugar in a ratio of 3: 1. That is, for three kilograms of fruit you will need one kilogram of sugar.
3. Plum, unlike other fruits and berries, does not give juice well, so valuable syrup will have to wait. Leave the sugar plum under a small oppression for a day and stir the mass regularly. Be careful not to damage the fruit.
4. When the syrup appears, put the pan on the fire and bring to a boil. It is very important that as soon as the plum begins to boil, it should be turned off so that the fruits do not cook. Stir the plums thoroughly to make sure all the fruits are coated with sugar syrup.
5. After this, the mass should cool - at this time the fruits are even more actively saturated with the sugar composition. After cooling, discard the mass in a colander and let the drain drain. Then put the halves of the fruit on the parchment and put in the oven. Plum should be dried at a minimum temperature of about 3-4 hours. High temperature will speed up the process, but the fruits will lose vitamins and become useless.
6. After drying, let the cream dry completely at room temperature.
7. By the way, you don’t need to pour sugar syrup. It is very fragrant and delicious. It can be used for liquors, the syrup can be diluted with water and drunk as a compote or used as a filling for pancakes.
8. Ready prunes should be dried, but quite elastic.

Such prunes can be used as a dessert or filling for pies. Sweet prunes can be added to meat marinades - it gives dishes a delicate sour taste and fruity aroma. Leave the prunes in a vase on the table, and the children will gladly eat it instead of sweets.

If the prunes are sufficiently dried, they can be stored in a canvas bag in a kitchen drawer. If you are in doubt whether the prunes are well-dried and are expected to be stored for a long time, freeze dried fruits in the freezer. It is better to pre-arrange the prunes in portions, so that it is more convenient to defrost.

Summer is a time for harvesting, drying, jam and preparing marinades. A good housewife will not only provide the family with natural products, but also save the family budget. After all, the cost of homemade prunes is 10 times cheaper than the dubious product that we find on store shelves. Dry the prunes, make preparations - and the winter will pass for you without monetary and vitamin losses!

Video: how to cook prunes at home