Experimenting with Shake Mix

O2/17/17 253.8 lbs

When a shake system is extremely versatile (multiple ingredients in the products), they will have recipes galore for the product. This one does, but I am not going off any of those, so I bet that there will be something similar on there.


So I had a clamshell of strawberries, fairly cheap, early in the season. Only to find out that they were sold cheap and early because of being disfigured, minor hidden bruising, and ready to turn nasty before going ripe. (Not local, but was a nationally known brand associated with fruits, and none of this showed from the outside of the container.)

I sliced them into chunks to get around the white spots (not ripe enough to be soft), the bruising, whatnot, mostly in half, except for the really large ones--those were quartered.

I took a small container and put 1 scoop of the shake mix, and dripped each strawberry half into it, one piece at a time, coating it. I put them directly on the dehydrator's grate.

At this stage, not much of the powder came off, and you can see that it used up the majority of 1 scoop, to coat them.

So then, I turned on the dehydrator, and ignored it for a couple of hours. When I went to check on them, I turned each berry (they do stick a little) and tested one for moisture content (yes, that means eating one or two).  And again, this knocked some powder off them.

Because of preparing for a baby's birthday party, I have some peanutbutter chips laying around, and I stuck 2 on, per piece on the side showing. Unfortunately, that was the powdery dry side, which means that they don't stick worth a darn, and once they melt, they stick to whatever else touches them. To compensate, I pressed two into each other and let them cool that way--which works fine.

Problems:

Because of the powder being loose on the outside of the berry,  this will not travel well. It's best as an at-home snack. It also prevented me from using a healthier alternative to basically candy. You need something self-contained to keep the powder from getting everywhere--and as earlier stated, it still was a hair messy. Not too much because most the powder, even though lose, is still on them.

What I should have done is cut them into slices, instead of chunks, that way both sides would allow powder to absorb the fluid, leaving only the ring of dry powder, then after drying, put on peanutbutter and a tiny dab of honey (or other sweetener--strawberries are tart, when out of season--very ripe ones you won't have to sweeten).

Also, I was hoping to catch this at the "leathers" stage. This is where the dehydrated thing has no discernable water still locked in, but is soft and pliable--kind of chewy. But there was still water locked in, and had to let it go overnight, to end up "crisp". Fortunately, strawberries do not dry hard like bananas, so they are still comfortable to eat.

So, what does it taste like? Like someone made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a candied treat (especially for someone who isn't  overconsuming sugar anymore), but is well balanced by the tartness of the berry.

The hubby will eat them all in one sitting.

Let's eat!