Making Raisins

In my Bountiful Baskets basket this week, I got table grapes.  Cute, little, sweet green grapes.  I decided that instead of just eating grapes I would try to make them into raisins.  I don’t have a food dehydrator, or the money to buy one.  It’s plenty sunny here, but I was concerned about bugs getting them if I left the grapes outside. Not to mention that it’s monsoon season here and rain sometimes comes from nowhere.  So, I researched if it could be done in the oven and it can!

Before

First, I washed all the grapes and removed them from the stems.  I laid wax paper (parchment paper would work too) on a baking sheet to prevent them from getting too stuck to the baking sheet.  I made a slit through one half of each grape to pierce the skin, then laid in a single layer on the baking sheet.. I set the oven to 180 degrees F, put the grapes in, set the timer for 1 hour so I could

After

check to see how they were coming along.  7 hours later, they finally looked more like raisins! I had the oven on long enough through the day, so turned it off and left them in the oven overnight.  They are great and taste so much fresher than raisins in the store!  However, I don’t think I will be making raisins again soon, it’s just too much time to have the oven on, so it will have to wait until I can get a dehydrator some day.

Please note that doing this in the oven may take longer than 7 hours, depending on the size of your grapes and on your oven.  From what I read, it can take as long as 12 hours for this process to happen.  The end result is worth it if you are willing to take the time!

Tags: grapes