HOW TO PREPARE FRUIT FOR DRYING

■ Cut the fruit into evenly sized pieces so it all dries at the same time. The drying time is determined by two factors: how small or thin your pieces are, and how much is covered by fruit skin. Yes, if you would eat the skin normally, then it will still be edible (and full of healthy fibre) on dried fruit. But fruit skin’s role in nature is to protect fruit from drying out, and if there’s too much on the pieces, it’ll double or triple the drying time needed.

■ A mandoline is useful for perfectly even slices (available from £15.99 from lakeland.co.uk).

■ As you cut the fruit, drop it into a bowl of water. Adding a spoonful of lemon juice, vinegar or salt will help slow the browning of the fruit.

■ Lay on the dehydrator rack or on a tray lined with non-stick parchment in the oven to dry. Turn the pieces halfway through the drying time. They are done when slices are firm and chunks are springy but not squishy. Store in airtight containers.

■ Part-dried fruit, still soft, is delicious but needs to be kept in the fridge (for up to a week), or freezer (for up to a year).

PEARS

■ Use soft, ripe pears. Cut unpeeled pears on the vertical to make slices about 4mm thick for wafers, or 1cm thick for chewier pieces. There’s no need to core them. Or peel, halve and core small pears (quarter large pears) using a melon baller or teaspoon.

■ Drying time: six-10 hours for slices, 12-18 hours for halves and quarters. Unpeeled pear halves take 36 hours or more.

APPLES

■ Slice unpeeled apples through their equator, coring them first if you like. Or peel and core the fruit and cut it into eighths before drying.

■ Drying time: six-10 hours for slices, 12-18 hours for chunks.

PLUMS

Prunes are dried plums, but the kind we are used to, the sweet black breakfast-buffet stalwart, are made from particular varieties that have low acidity when dehydrated.

Home-grown dried plums tend to be much more tangy and lighter coloured, but are delicious too.

■ Choose the ripest plums, and halve and stone them, as it can take days to dry whole plums, even if you pierce the skin in several places.

■ Pressing on the skin side of each half to pop it “inside out” speeds up the drying time too.

■ Drying time: 10-12 hours.