How to Dehydrate Pears
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Dehydrated pears can be a delicious snack and a great way to use in-season produce. Here is a simple guide to teach you how to dehydrate pears so that you can make the most of this delicious fruit!
How to Dehydrate Pears
I always think that it’s interesting to know what is up with the Little House Living readers. Just why on earth do you follow my writing and blog posts and what would be interesting for you to see here?
Recently I asked a group of active LHL readers what blog posts they’d like to see next and I was overwhelmed with the number of requests for more dehydrating tutorials! I’ve done a few in the past like this one on How to make Dried Orange Peel, or this yummy recipe for Easy Garlic Zucchini Chips, and this one on Dehydrating Eggs.
But I haven’t really posted much on dehydrating basic fruits and veggies….something that I do a lot! Lately, I’ve been busy drying some pears so I thought I would get a post up on dehydrating pears.
–Join in the conversation in our Facebook group- Simple and Frugal Living.
Start with some quality pears. Mushy pears will be difficult to slice and might stick to your dehydrator. Pears that aren’t ripe yet won’t have much flavor when they are dried. Pears that are bruised will have bad spots in them. Wash all the pears before dehydrating since we will dehydrate them with the peels on.
If I can get them, I buy pears in bulk in the fall from Azure Standard.
Preparing to Dehydrate Pears
I use a mandolin to slice my pears. Mandolins are very sharp and make it very easy to cut yourself so if you don’t have one or are nervous to use one, you cut your pears into slices using a sharp knife instead. The key is to cut them into slices that are the same thickness. Too thin and you will have a little sheet of paper when they are dried, too thick and they will have a hard time drying.
Slice one side of the pear until you reach the seeds, then flip it over and slice the other side. Set the middle parts to the side. After you are done getting your pears ready to dry, you can use these leftover middles to make some pear sauce. I usually do not dry any more than the sides of the pears because otherwise, I seem to get more inconsistent sized slices.
–You could also use your middle parts to make this Simple Pear Tart Recipe.
Dehydrating Pears
Layer your slices of pears into the dehydrator trays. Do not put anything under the pears but place them directly on the trays. I use a L’Equip Dehydrator and it’s been working well for many years now. I like how large it is and how I can add or subtract trays depending on what I’m making. You can find them under the “dehydrators” section at Pleasant Hill Grain. (Which has the best price on them!)
It takes about 2 1/2 pears to fill up each tray on my dehydrator or about 15 medium-sized pears to fill up all 6 trays. You may need more or less depending on the size of your pears and your dehydrator.
Once all the trays are full, set your dehydrator on 150 degrees for 10 hours. If you think of it, switch the trays around in the middle of the drying to help them to dry more evenly. If you don’t, that’s ok too. I like to load up my trays at night, set for 10 hours, and put the food away in the morning.
After the dehydrator has finished, check to make sure that all of your pears are done. If they have any mushy spots put them in for longer. Remove them and place them in some kind of bag or container. I store mine in the fridge. If I’ve done up a very large batch (more than we will eat in a month), I stick them in the freezer. This helps to extend the “fresh” taste.
Our whole family loves these pears! Since everyone will eat them for snacks, I will keep on dehydrating pears until we get tired of them!
–If you don’t want to dehydrate all your pears, you can also Can Pears
A few more things about Drying Pears
How long to dehydrate pears?
As I mentioned above, it takes about 10 hours in my dehydrator to fully dry the pears at 150 degrees. Your timing could vary slightly if you cannot control the temp of your dehydrator or if you have more humidity in the air.
Can you dehydrate Asian pears?
Of course! Use the same method that I outlined above.
How do you dehydrate pears without a dehydrator?
If your oven can go on a very low setting (around 150 degrees F) you should be able to dehydrate them in there. You may not want to do this overnight though so you can keep a closer eye on your pears.
While you’ve got your dehydrator out, let’s make something else! Here are a few to choose from:
Dehydrated Vegetables
How to Make Yogurt in a Dehydrator
Easy Garlic Zucchini Chips Recipe
Homemade Fruit Roll Ups Recipe
Drying and Preserving Flowers
Making Sun Dried Tomatoes
Dehydrated Eggs (How to Make and What to Do With Them!)
How to Make Dried Orange Peel (and a Tea Recipe)
Do you dehydrate pears? What other fruits do you dry?
This post on How to Dehydrate Pears was originally published on Little House Living in November 2018. It has been updated as of November 2019.
Thanks! This was helpful. We are “full” of pears this year.
Can I put a little cinnamon on the pears before I dehydrate them?
Yes, that sounds yummy!
We have Kieffer (hard) pears. Do we need to do anything differently? Do you put yours slices in lemon water while you cut them to limit browning? I would like to add some sugar and spices, too.
I haven’t tried drying that kind so I’m not sure how (or if) they would be different. I do not put slices in lemon water first, we just dry them as is. 🙂 Adding sugar or spices should work fine.
I have dehydrated melons. They turn into the sweetest melt in your mouth treat
What kind of melons? Can you dehydrate watermelon? I have a apple and pear tree and there’s only mr and my husband so I’m trying to conserve all fruit I can. With all crazy weather I can’t count on rain so we bought a water tank and I love it! Something everyone needs to have! My trees are doing better with only rain water.
I’ve dehydrated both cantaloupe and watermelons. They are like a candy treat!
Thank you for the information on drying pears. I just received 20 lbs. of pears from Azure. There are just the two of us and I think dehydrated pears will be something different to enjoy when we are camping in a couple of weeks.
You’re welcome! My order is due next week so I’m hoping they will still have some of the pear boxes 🙂
My dehydrator doesn’t have a setting so we just check it every few hours. I find that they dry much quicker than recipes suggest for this reason. My daughter and I just loaded our first batch of pears with a bit of cinnamon sugar. There was about half a pear left over after the trays were filled so we snacked on them. What a lovely treat. I’ve never done pears. Thanks for the tips 🙂
When you save the middles (with seeds) to make pear sauce-how do you save them? In the fridge? In lemon water? How long do you save them?
I use them right away otherwise they get brown really quickly.
When using your dehydrator are you saying to put the sliced pears directly onto the tray without the mesh screens?
No, I put them on the mesh screens.
I’ve been enjoying your site immensely! Your tips regarding the pear dehydrating are spot on. Of course, especially since I have exactly the same dehydrator. By the way, the second batch of pears came off the trays much easier with the mesh screens. The pears turned out beautifully; a joy to both eat and behold.
Can’t wait to try the Apple Pie Jam.
Thank you so much for sharing from your wealth of culinary experience.
Thank you for the idea! I used my oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit and used parchment paper covered cookie sheets. I cooked for 3-3 1/2 hours. I turned the slices at 2 hours. They are delicious. I used red pears.