Butternut Squash Bark

Ingredients:

  • 13 ounces butter nut squash
  • ½ cup apple juice
  • 1 Tbl. real maple syrup
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon (may include nutmeg)

Directions:

  1. Peel butternut squash and cut into chunks.
  2. Boil until soft.
  3. Drain and mash.
  4. Stir in apple juice, maple syrup, and cinnamon. If you like nutmeg, you may replace half of the cinnamon with nutmeg.
  5. Run the mashed butternut squash through a blender until creamy. If your blender struggles with the mixture, add a few more spoonfuls of juice or water.

Dehydrate:

  1. Cover dehydrator trays with non-stick Excalibur Paraflexx® sheets, parchment paper, or fruit leather inserts that came with your dehydrator.
  2. Spread thinly and as evenly as possible on covered dehydrator trays. Shoot for an 1/8 inch thickness. The quantities in this recipe will cover one Excalibur Dehydrator tray.
  3. Dehydrate at 135° for 8-10 hours. The butternut squash will form a sheet that may have cracks running through it.

Flip It:

  1. After about 6 hours of drying, peel the bark off the non-stick sheets and flip it over to expose the bottom side to more hot air for the remainder of the drying time. Place the bark directly on the mesh dehydrator trays without the non-stick sheets.
  2. Depending on how long you dry it, the butternut squash sheet will either tear like fruit leather or break into bark. For snacking and short-term use, you may prefer to dry it to the leather stage. If packing for a trip that will last more than a month, dry it longer to the snappy bark stage.

Yield: ¾ cup of bark (2½ ounces)

Serving Suggestion: Butternut Squash Porridge

 Calories (entire recipe): 262