Dehydrated Watermelon (or, how I found out that watermelon can be candy)

As mentioned, I've been experimenting with my Dehydrator a lot this summer. In fact it's running weekly, sometimes more often depending on what I have laying around. I've especially been fond of doing celery, leeks, onions, apples, and pears. 

Although I am not the biggest fan of watermelon in the world, I'd heard that it becomes particularly sweet when dehydrated. Since it's mostly water, it makes a lot of sense that it would become a much stronger flavour when all that water was taken out. 

So, much to the chagrin of my husband (also not a watermelon fan), I bought a huge watermelon and promptly carved it apart.

I sliced the watermelon into 1/4 inch slices and filled all 6 trays of my dehydrator, and set it at 135F

Being that it's all water, I knew it would take a long time to dry. It took me 19 hours to dry this batch, and it probably needed another hour or two. I've noticed pieces sticking together in the jar, so they definitely have a bit of moisture left, but I wanted to avoid them becoming too brittle.

They are pretty tasty! They really do taste like a condensed version of a watermelon, incredibly sweet. I tend to refer to it as "watemelon candy" due to it's sweet taste and candy-like texture. And the watermelon lovers I've given some to really love it! 

Mmmm, watermelon candy