Some apple varieties taste better dried than others
Apples dehydrate quickly and easily. Some varieties taste much better dehydrated than others. Granny Smith apples are plenty tasty when dried and can usually be found relatively inexpensively. On the other side of the coin, Red Delicious apples become like tasteless cardboard, and are some of the most sorely disappointing dried fruit that can be had.
My general rule of thumb is that if a fresh apple is tangy and mouth-puckering, it will make a more interesting dried fruit.
If you find yourself with an abundance of bland apples you want to dehydrate, I'd recommend using a fruit juice dip in lemon or cranberry juice to add some extra flavor (and also slow oxidation).
Dehydrated apples will benefit from being treated with a fruit juice, sulfite, or ascorbic acid solution before drying. 1 large apple will yield about 3/4 cups dried apples.
- Wash and peel, and core the apples.
- Slice the cored apple into rings about 1/4" thick.
- Soak the apple slices in lemon or orange juice for 3 to 5 minutes. If you don't want to impart the fruit juice flavors on the apples, you can use an ascorbic acid mixture or sulfur instead.