How To Make Homemade Raisins
Why make your own homemade raisins? Well, my reason is the surplus of grapes I am finding myself stuck with after painting them. I hate seeing food go to waste—I will never eat so many grapes, so I turned them into raisins to avoid feeding the garbage.
I am really happy I landed in this situation, because what results turns out to be the tastiest, plumpest raisins you have ever tried. Homemade raisins turn out more than double the size of store bought, and eating one makes your mouth feel like your taste meter just got turned up ten notches. They taste more like candy. And the best part, they are super easy to make.
Take The Plunge
There is a little more to making raisins than just taking grapes and drying them out. You need to blanch them first—not so much to partially cook them, but to crack their skins. Plunge them into a large quantity of boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then shock them in an ice bath to stop them from cooking. It’s important that the grapes crack open. With their skins broken, the raisin making process is in the works!
You don’t even need a food dehydrator to make raisins, though you can use one. Once the skins of your grapes are cracked, you remove the stems and place them in a single layer onto plates or baking sheets. It’s important that they are not too crowded or the drying time will be prolonged. Just ensure that there is plenty of space between the grapes for circulation.
Low And Slow
Then you pop them in the oven set at its lowest temperature. On my oven this is 170 F, but many ovens have a lowest setting of 180 F. Leave the grapes to dry out for 12-18 hours. You will notice that some may dry faster than others—simply remove these and let the other ones catch up. I like to turn off my oven after 12 hours and just let them sit for another 4-6 hours, but every oven works differently.
How Do You Raisin?
Once your grapes are dried, you have homemade raisins! They are amazing on their own, but I have added them to cookie dough and steaming bowls of oatmeal. Whatever you do with them, I believe you will find they were well worth the effort.
