Dried Apples substitute

Best substitute

Dried pears

Use the same amount by weight as the dried apples you are replacing

Best for fried pies

Close match

For a filling, such as fried apple pies or Appalachian stack cake, the honest best answer is to make your own: peel and slice apples thin and dry them in a low oven, or skip drying altogether and cook fresh apples down hard until the mixture holds a spoon-track. Dried pears are the closest ready-made swap at 1:1, then dried peaches or dried apricots. In muesli, granola or stuffing, where the fruit only needs to be sweet and chewy, dried pears, raisins or chopped dried apricots all work one for one.

Other dried apples substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Home-dried apple slices
Close match
About 8 medium apples make 1 cup dried
Fresh apples cored, sliced thin and dried slowly in a low oven or dehydrator until pliable and leathery.
What changes
Best for
fried apple pies, stack cake, schnitz, muesli, snacking, apple hand pies
For traditional recipes that are built around dried apples, this is genuinely the right answer and it is not difficult. Core the apples, slice them about 5mm or a quarter inch thick, dip them in water with a squeeze of lemon so they do not brown, and dry them on lined trays at the lowest oven setting, around 60 to 70C or 140 to 160F, with the door propped open a crack. They take six to ten hours and are done when a slice bends without snapping and shows no wet centre. Tart, firm apples such as Granny Smith or a good cooking apple dry best. Cool completely before storing.
3Fresh apples cooked down hard (for fillings)
Different taste
1 cup dried apples is roughly 5 to 6 cups sliced fresh apples; use no added water and cook until very thick
Fresh tart apples, peeled, chopped small and simmered until the mixture is stiff rather than saucy.
What changes
Best for
fried pies, hand pies, turnovers, stack cake, apple cake filling
Practical and often better tasting, but you have to respect what drying was for. Dried apples are simmered with water to make a dense filling that will not leak out of a pastry seam; fresh apples arrive with all their own water, so cook them covered until soft, then uncovered, stirring, until a spoon dragged across the pan leaves a channel that stays open. Expect twenty to thirty minutes and expect the flavour to be brighter and fresher but less deep and caramelly than a dried-apple filling. Cool it completely before filling pastry, because warm filling makes the dough slack and it will blow out in the fryer.
4Unsweetened applesauce (fillings and batters)
Taste and texture differ
1 cup dried apples, once cooked, is roughly 1 to 1 ¼ cups thick applesauce; drain and reduce it first
Plain unsweetened applesauce, cooked down to thicken and spiced to taste.
What changes
Best for
stack cake filling, muffins, quick breads, apple butter, spice cake
The fastest fix, and it works if you fix the water. Straight from the jar it is far too loose for pastry and will run out of a pie, so simmer it in a wide pan for ten to fifteen minutes until it mounds on a spoon. It is also smooth, so you lose the little chewy pieces of fruit that give a stack cake or fried pie its character, and it tastes noticeably milder. Sharpen it with a tablespoon of lemon juice, and season it hard with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and brown sugar, because dried apples carry far more concentrated flavour than sauce does.
5Dried peaches or dried apricots
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Dried peach halves or dried apricots, chopped to roughly apple-slice size.
What changes
Best for
muesli, granola, stuffing, compote, hand pies, couscous
A good working swap wherever the fruit is a component rather than the whole point. Both rehydrate well and both hold up to simmering, so a compote or a stuffing behaves the same. Dried peaches are the gentler of the two and taste closest to apple; apricots are distinctly tarter and stronger, and they turn a filling orange, so a fried pie made with them is clearly an apricot pie. Sweetness runs a little higher with peaches, so cut a tablespoon of sugar per cup of fruit if the recipe is already sweet.
6Apple chips (crisp kind) with caution
Different texture
Not a reliable measure; use by volume and expect to add liquid
Thin apple slices dried until brittle and crunchy, often sold as a snack food and sometimes sugar-coated.
What changes
Best for
muesli, cereal toppings, garnish, crumble toppings
Worth knowing the difference, because the packet often just says dried apples. Chewy dried apple rings rehydrate into fruit; crisp apple chips are much drier and thinner, so they either dissolve to mush or stay papery, and cinnamon-sugar coated ones will make a filling cloying. They are fine crumbled over granola or yogurt where the crunch is a feature. For a cooked filling, soak them in hot water fifteen minutes, taste for sweetness, and expect a softer, less substantial result than proper dried slices give.

What is Dried Apples?

Dried Apples is the name for peeled or unpeeled apple slices or rings dehydrated until leathery and chewy, with the flavour concentrated and most of the water gone, which is what lets them be simmered back into a thick filling.

Cooking tips

Dried apples in traditional Appalachian and Amish recipes, often called schnitz, are meant to be simmered before use: cover with water, bring to a boil, then leave off the heat for thirty minutes until plump, and mash roughly with sugar and spice. Skipping this step is why homemade fried pies come out tough.
Save the soaking water. It is essentially light apple cider and makes a better liquid for the filling, or for the pastry glaze, than plain water does.
In muffins and quick breads, chop dried apples small and toss them in a spoonful of the recipe's flour. Left whole, the pieces pull moisture from the crumb around them and leave dry patches.
Sulphured dried apples stay pale gold and unsulphured ones go brown; both taste fine, but if a recipe is meant to look light, the brown kind will tint the filling a deeper caramel colour.
For stuffing and pork dishes, add dried apples in the last fifteen minutes rather than at the start. Long cooking turns them to fibre and they lose the fruity bite that made you add them.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave dried apples out?

It depends on the job. In granola, muesli, stuffing or a cookie they are optional, and the recipe works without them, just less sweet and less chewy, so bulk out the volume with another dried fruit or some nuts. In fried apple pies, stack cake or anything called a dried apple filling, they are the entire dish and cannot be omitted; cook fresh apples down thick instead.

How many fresh apples equal a cup of dried apples?

Roughly five to six cups of sliced fresh apple, which is about eight medium apples, cooks down to what one cup of dried apples gives you once rehydrated. Drying removes about three quarters of the weight in water. If you are going the fresh route, use no added liquid and cook until the mixture is thick enough to hold a spoon upright in it, otherwise a pie filling will run.

Are dried apples and apple chips the same thing?

Not quite. Dried apple rings are dried until leathery and still bendy, so they rehydrate into soft fruit. Apple chips are dried further until they snap, and are often coated in cinnamon sugar. Chips are lovely on yogurt or granola but they turn to mush or stay papery in a cooked filling, and the coated ones make the result too sweet.

Can I use canned apple pie filling instead of dried apples?

In a hand pie or turnover, yes, though it is a different texture: canned filling is glossy, sweet and set with starch, where a dried apple filling is denser and more rustic. Drain some of the syrup, chop the slices smaller, and cut the sugar elsewhere in the recipe. In muesli, granola or stuffing it will not work at all, because it is wet.

Do I have to soak dried apples first?

For fillings, compotes and cakes, yes. Cover with boiling water or cider and leave fifteen to thirty minutes, then drain, or simmer them gently until plump. In something with plenty of moisture and a long cook, such as a stew or a baked stuffing, they will rehydrate in the dish itself. Only leave them dry when the recipe needs to stay dry, like a granola or trail mix.

Related substitutes

More fruits substitutes

Dried Apples substitute

Other dried apples substitutes

2Home-dried apple slices

3Fresh apples cooked down hard (for fillings)

4Unsweetened applesauce (fillings and batters)

5Dried peaches or dried apricots

6Apple chips (crisp kind) with caution