Frozen Dried Apples -- Oober Yummy!

We weren't able to collect all of the apples off our little apple tree this fall. It was an oddity that's never happened to us before, since these are delicious apples, they're right outside our front door, and eleven munchy people live in this house! I'm still not quite sure how it happened--we certainly tried, bagging several sacks for the root cellar and everything. There were just so many up there this year!

Once the snow and cold came, we'd thought the remaining apples, clinging frozen on the tree, be a tragic loss.

Until...

 Mom decided to try bringing some in, thawing them by the stove,

chopping them up and laying their slices on the dehydrator trays.

(Brr! Good job for rowdy boys holed up indoors during the winter. :-) Johnny has the daily chore of chopping two of these trays.)

And drying them on the trays hanging above the rocket stove.

This family has always had a thing for dried apples, but nothing compares to the sweetness and chewiness of dried apples that have been frozen first.

We brought some 'good' apples up from the cellar and dried a few, only to find they were pale and bland by comparison. 

A tray of these thick, oozy, frozen slices only takes about 12 hours to dry. The trick is getting a few when they're done before they've all been snatched up!

Yummy!

 I think this is a 'mistake' we'll be repeating next fall...