Dried hawthorn - a recipe for how to dry it correctly so that the fruit retains its beneficial properties.

To prepare dried hawthorn, you need to take unripe berries. They are cleared of seeds and generously sprinkled with sugar, left for a day in a cool room (no more than 20 degrees).

The berries will give juice - it needs to be drained and canned either separately or in a blend with the juice of sour apples, cranberries or sea buckthorn.

The remaining fruits should be mixed with hot syrup and boiled, without bringing to a boil, for about 7 minutes.

After this, everything is cooled together, the syrup is drained, and the berries need to be placed on a baking sheet and dried in the oven at a temperature of 80 degrees for no more than half an hour, and then lower the temperature to 65-70 degrees and dried with a break to cool for two more stages of half an hour.

When the hawthorn has cooled, gently transfer it to a sieve, cover with gauze or cloth, place in the sun or dry in several stages in the oven at 30 degrees for another 4-6 hours. Monitor humidity for 3-5 days.When the hawthorn is dry, transfer it to a glass container.

To pour the berries, use 400 g of sugar for every 1 kg of hawthorn, and for syrup - for every kg of 300 ml of water and 300 g of sugar.

This is a simple way to dry hawthorn berries at home. In winter, in addition to brewing teas and preparing tinctures, it is very convenient and healthy to add crushed dried berries to the dough for bread and sweet pies - this will give the baked goods a pleasant berry flavor.