Imagine
enjoying a serving of pumpkin pie on your next hike. This page shows how to
dehydrate pumpkin pie bark and leather using fresh or canned pumpkin, plus
instructions for steaming and dehydrating pumpkin cubes to use in backpacking
meals.
Pumpkin Pie Bark
Pumpkin pie bark goes in like a chip and down like pie.
- Chewy and nutritious trail snack.
- Turn it into pumpkin pie pudding with hot or cold water.
- Add it to oatmeal for a hearty trail breakfast.
Photos: (l) Pumpkin pie bark spread thinly on dehydrator tray covered with nonstick sheet. (r) Dehydrated pumpkin pie bark is brittle and can be broken into smaller chips for snacking.
Ingredients:
- 1 15-oz. can pumpkin
- ¼ cup real maple syrup
- 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice)
Combine
pumpkin with maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice. Use real maple syrup
for best results. Stir until ingredients are mixed well. You don’t need
to use a blender.
Spread thinly (about eighth inch) on dehydrator
trays covered with nonstick sheets or the fruit leather inserts that go with your dehydrator.
Dehydrate at 135°F (57°C) for approximately eight hours until brittle.
After about five hours, place a spare dehydrator tray on top of the bark and flip the
two trays over so that the bottom side of the bark is now facing up.
Remove the nonstick sheet. This will ensure complete drying.
Yield: One 15-ounce can of pumpkin yields 1½ cups of dehydrated pumpkin pie bark weighing four ounces.
Pumpkin Pie Pudding
Serves 1
Ingredients:
- ½ cup pumpkin pie bark
- ½ cup water
Pumpkin pie bark dissolves in hot or cold water. If you want hot pudding, stir the bark with hot water until creamy. I use my candle stove
to gently warm the water.
For larger servings, combine bark with an equal quantity of water.
Garnish with chopped walnuts or pecans if desired.
Tip: Excalibur
dehydrators have 15 X 15 inch square trays which makes it much easier
to spread liquified foods compared to round dehydrators with holes in
the middle of the trays.
Read my review comparing Nesco Dehydrators to Excalibur Dehydrators.
Granny Smith’s Pumpkin-Apple Pie Bark
This is the same recipe as pumpkin pie bark with the addition of one fresh apple. The bark is slightly more pliable with the added moisture of the apple.
Photo shows dehydrated pumpkin-apple pie bark in chip form, and then rehydrated into pudding with toppings.
Ingredients:
- 1 15-oz. can pumpkin
- 1 large apple
- ¼ cup real maple syrup
- 2 tsp. apple pie spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice)
Peel and core apple and cut into pieces. Combine with pumpkin and spices in blender and blend until smooth.
Spread thinly on dehydrator trays covered with nonstick sheets.
Dehydrate at 135°F (57°C) for approximately eight hours. Employ the flip trick as
discussed above after five hours. Dried consistency will be more
leathery than basic pumpkin pie bark which is brittle.
Tear bark into pieces and enjoy as a trail snack.
To make pumpkin-appie pie pudding,
combine ½ cup bark with ½ cup hot water and stir until creamy. Garnished with nuts or granola.
Pumpkin-Peanut
Butter Pie Leather
This recipe uses fresh pumpkin, but you can also use canned
pumpkin. With the added apple juice, the end product is pliable, just like
fruit leather.
Peanut butter powder makes this leather
especially tasty for peanut butter lovers, but you can leave it out to make it
a standard pumpkin pie leather.
Photos
show blended pumpkin-peanut butter pie ingredients before and after
dehydrating.
Servings: 2 Excalibur
dehydrator trays of leather.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. pumpkin cubes (454 g)
- 1 cup apple juice (237 ml)
- ¼ cup maple syrup (59 ml)
- 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 4 Tbsp. peanut butter powder*
* Peanut butter powder has most of the fat
removed, so it is suitable for dehydrating. Buy PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter on
Amazon.
Preparation:
Peel and cut pumpkin into cubes.
Bring pumpkin, apple juice, and pumpkin pie spice to a boil
in pot, then reduce heat to simmer for about thirty minutes until pumpkin cubes
are soft.
Let cool, then stir in maple syrup and peanut butter powder.
Run contents of pot though a blender to a smoothie-like
consistency.
Dehydrating Pumpkin
Leather:
Spread blended pumpkin thinly on dehydrator trays covered
with nonstick sheets.
Dehydrate pumpkin leather at 135°F (57°C) for approximately
8 hours until leathery and no moist spots remain. Tip: After about 6 hours,
flip leather over and remove nonstick sheet to finish drying.
Storage & Packaging:
Place pumpkin leather on top of a sheet of parchment paper
with four inches of extra paper on one side. Fold into four columns and then
fold in half. This will keep the leather from sticking to itself, and the fold
lines will make it easy to tear into strips for snacking.
Several folded leathers can be packaged in a Ziploc
bag to take on the trail. At home store wrapped leathers in an airtight
container.
Pudding
Rehydrate one sheet of leather, about ½-cup
torn (60 grams), with an equal quantity of hot or cold water. Stir to dissolve
the leather. Top with pecans or walnuts.
Photos: Pumpkin-Peanut
Butter Leather rehydrated into pudding (l), or mixed into oatmeal (r).
Pumpkin-Peanut Butter
Oatmeal
1 Large Serving:
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup pumpkin-peanut butter leather (60 g)
- ¼ cup dried fruit, try apples and blueberries
(15 g) - 2 cups water (473 ml)
On the Trail:
Soak dried fruit in water for 5 minutes. Light stove and
bring to a boil.
Add oats and leather. Stir to mix. As soon as
water starts to bubble again, turn off stove and transfer pot to an insulating
pot cozy for ten minutes.
Pumpkin-Peanut
Butter Granola Clusters
Photo on left shows the ingredients almost dry after
flipping the tray over and removing the nonstick sheet. Photo on right shows pumpkin-peanut
butter granola clusters ready for a snack attack.
Servings: 2 Excalibur
trays
Ingredients:
Use the same quantity of ingredients and preparation method
for Pumpkin-Peanut Butter Leather.
Stir in 4 cups of granola (400 g) and mix well.
Dehydrate:
Spread mixture thinly on dehydrator trays covered with
nonstick sheets.
Dehydrate at 135°F (57°C) for approximately 10–12
hours until dry, but still slightly pliable.
When the clusters are substantially dry, flip the tray over
onto another tray and remove the nonstick sheet for the remainder of the drying
time.
Break into smaller clusters, place on plate, and
watch them disappear. Store in an airtight container or a Ziploc bag for the
trail.
How
to Dehydrate Pumpkin Cubes
The bright orange color of dehydrated pumpkin cubes make
them a great addition to any backpacking meal. Just add a pinch of them along
with other dried vegetables. Pumpkin is full of vitamins and minerals,
especially beta carotene. Source: Healthline, Pumpkin Nutrition.
Photos show steamed pumpkin cubes before and
after dehydrating.
Preparation:
Choose a squat pumpkin intended for eating, not the tall kind
that you carve at Halloween.
Cut off the top and scoop out the seeds and stringy parts.
For easier handling, cut the pumpkin downward into four parts.
This will give you flat edges to steady the pumpkin quarters while peeling and
slicing.
After peeling off the skin, cut the pumpkin quarters, with
the curved side facing you, into slices about a 1/4-inch to 3/8-inch thick
(about ½
cm).
Lastly, cut the pumpkin slices longwise and crosswise about
the same thickness as the first cuts.
Cooking:
Place pumpkin cubes in a steaming basket inside a pot with
half an inch of water. Steam pumpkin for fifteen to twenty minutes until soft,
but not mushy.
Dehydrating Pumpkin
Cubes:
Place steamed pumpkin cubes in a single layer directly on
mesh dehydrator trays.
Dehydrate pumpkin at 135°F (57°C) for approximately 6 hours,
or until no moisture can be squeezed from them. Pumpkin cubes shrink a lot when
they are dry.
Yield: 500 grams of pumpkin cubes (a little over a
pound) will weigh only 26 grams after steaming and dehydrating. Dried volume
will be slightly more than a third of a cup.
How to Dehydrate Pumpkin Soup
Photo shows rehydrated pumpkin soup, mashed pumpkin, and pumpkin pie pudding made by dehydrating whole pumpkin.
Cook and dehydrate fresh pumpkin to make pumpkin soup and mashed pumpkin. Learn how in this backissue of Trail Bytes:
How to dehydrate pumpkin soup with a whole pumpkin.
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