Dried fruit, not to be confused with freeze-dried fruit, is a delicious snack and a great way to get your daily servings of fruit. However, cutting dried fruit can be a time-consuming and sticky process. Fortunately, there is a tool you can use that is so much easier than a knife: kitchen shears.
Basically a sturdy pair of scissors, kitchen shears can be used for a variety of kitchen hacks, like cutting pizza or cracking open nuts. This handy and versatile tool can also be used to cut dried fruit, similar to how normal scissors would cut through paper. Simply hold the piece of dried fruit between the shears and cut.
This method can be applied to nearly any dried fruit of your choosing, although it works best on larger dried fruits like dates, mangoes, apricots, figs, apple rings, or prunes. Smaller dried fruits like raisins, cherries, and cranberries can be challenging to pinch with your fingers and cut with the scissors safely. Once the fruit has been cut, be sure to store the dried fruit in the proper place to maximize its shelf life.
Using kitchen shears to cut dried fruit
Part of why kitchen shears are better for cutting dried fruit than a knife is efficiency. Rather than chopping with a knife on a board and transferring the contents afterward, kitchen shears can cut dried fruit over a bowl. Just hold the pieces of dried fruit, snip them into the desired size, and drop them into a bowl.
One common issue many people face when cutting dried fruit is stickiness. Regardless of the tool used, including kitchen shears, dried fruit can become sticky when it is cut, clinging to the knife blade or shears. There are two main methods used to avoid stickiness when cutting dried fruit: sugar or flour.
For the sugar method, toss the dried fruit into a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of white sugar, enough to coat the fruit. For the flour method, dust the kitchen shears with flour occasionally to keep the fruit from sticking as it is being cut.
