I’ve always been impressed by “sun-dried” designations on raisins boxes, thinking the process of making raisins must be super complex and full of complicated equipment. Imagine my surprise when I discovered making raisins in my kitchen (or on my porch) was super simple and almost effortless! With this recipe, you can impress all your friends with your newfound knowledge of how to make raisins.
The best part about DIY Raisins is that you can use any type of grapes, so whatever you have on hand works. In fact, use this as an opportunity to experiment and figure out which types of raisins are your favorite. Some types of raisins are sweeter than others (looking at you, Concord), whereas white grapes make some cool-colored raisins.
DIY Raisins
Ingredients
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200° Fahrenheit, or however low a setting your oven will go. Wash your grapes in a colander to get off any pesticides or other chemicals on them.
Lay parchment paper over a baking sheet. Remove all the stems from your grapes, and spread them evenly on top of the baking sheet.
Once your oven has preheated, insert the grapes into the oven and bake at low heat for 4 hours, or until you’re satisfied with your raisins. Make sure you flip or stir them around every hour or so to make sure they dry evenly. They will ooze juices and stick to the pan, but just peel them off. Thank goodness for parchment paper, am I right?
Alternatively, you can line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, layer the grapes, cover them with cheesecloth, and leave them to bask in the sun for a few days. This method takes a little longer, but you can brag to all your friends that you know how to make raisins that are sun-dried ’cause you’re fancy AF.
And there you have it! Now you can make your own raisins at home super easily, and impress all your friends with your superb cooking skills. Because making raisins totally counts as cooking–you used an oven or a cheesecloth, didn’t you? Besides, you can bake your DIY raisins into other dishes like these breakfast almond bites or these vegan oatmeal raisin cookies, and then you’re sure to wow with your real heavy-duty cooking.