How to Dry Longan Fruit
Dried Longan (long nhãn) is a tasty snack often used in sweet dessert soups as well as a herbal medicine with a relaxation effect. Learn how to dry longan fruit at home with your oven.
Prep Time1 hour hr
Cook Time3 hours hrs 30 minutes mins
Total Time4 hours hrs 30 minutes mins
Course: Dessert and Snack
Cuisine: Chinese, Vietnamese
Keyword: summer
Servings: 1 cup
Calories: 544kcal
- 2 lbs fresh longan fruits (you can dry more or less fruits as you want)
Peel off just a bit of the shell at the top of the fruit.
Push the tip of the knife into the flesh where it meets the seed.
Move the knife in a circular motion to separate the flesh and the seed.
After one full circle, use the knife to push the seed out.
Peel off the remaining shell.
Preheat your oven to 215°F (or 100°C) with fan on. Arrange the flesh of longan fruits on a wired rack over a baking tray.
Dry them for 3-3.5 hours. The exact time depends on the thickness of the flesh. Start checking regularly after 3 hours. Remove longan from the oven once it is dry and dark brown (or even almost black) in color.
Store dried longan in a tight jar or sealed bag in the refrigerator.
The quantity of longan fruits is just a suggestion. You can dry as much as you want. It can take about an hour to remove shell and seed for 2 pounds (900 grams) of longan.
From 2 pounds of longan, I get about 1 pound (450 grams) of the flesh only. After dehydrating, I end up with about 3.5 oz (100 grams) of dried longan, about a cup.
You will need a small paring knife with a sharp tip to remove the shell and seed of the fruit. It is best to watch the video in the post to see how to do this.
I use a convection oven and dehydrate the longan with the fan on. If you have a conventional oven, you may need to add more cooking time and rotate the baking tray once in a while. Or try increasing the oven temperature slightly by 10-20°F.
Usually the darker the color, the dryer the fruit and the longer you can store them.
Calories: 544kcal | Carbohydrates: 137g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 1g | Potassium: 2413mg | Fiber: 10g | Vitamin C: 762mg | Iron: 1mg