How To Preserve Lemon Slices For Decoration

Ever wondered how to turn fresh citrus into the most gorgeous dried citrus in your oven? If so, I tin't wait to share my ultimate guide on How to Dry Citrus in the Oven with you likewise as some of my favorite means to use dehydrated citrus!

overhead shot of dried citrus wheels including blood oranges, navel oranges, limes, and lemons

Every fourth dimension I post a recipe with dried citrus involved, I get questions asking how I fabricated my dehydrated citrus slices without a dehydrator. While this process is rather time-consuming (3-vi hours total) it's VERY piece of cake because most of that is hands-off time just waiting for the citrus to dehydrate.

What citrus can I dehydrate?

While any citrus can be dehydrated, for this post I used the following:

Stale Lemons (two-3 hours)
Stale Limes (two-iii hours)
Stale Blood Oranges (3-4hours)
Dried Cara Cara Oranges (3-four hours)
Dried Navel Oranges (3-4 hours)
Stale Grapefruit (5+ hours)

citrus on a baking tray labeled by fruit including blood oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, cara cara oranges, and navel oranges

Steps to dry out citrus in oven

One: Preheat oven to 200F convection settings

The showtime step to making perfectly dried citrus is to set up your oven at the right temperature.

For my oven, 200F is the perfect low temperature to bake my citrus wheels. However, if your oven can go lower you can set it all the style down to 170F for similar results (though it will accept a bit longer to dry out the citrus).

By setting the oven at a depression temperature, yous are essentially very slowly dehydrating the citrus slices over a menses of 3-6 hours by cartoon out all of the moisture.

Likewise, I ever recommend using the convection settings in your oven if bachelor. A convection oven has a fan at the back which helps to evenly broadcast the steam.

This is platonic for dehydrating fruit and so the moisture is removed evenly and it actually makes the procedure faster!

2: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a wire rack

It's of import to apply parchment paper or an oven-safe bakeable wire rack on top of a baking tray or else the citrus may stick to the pan while dehydrating.

If neither of these options is available, you can ever lightly coat a pan with oil to avoid this trouble.

Withal, I prefer not to use oil when drying fruit in the oven so I always recommend parchment paper when available. I ever use If You Care parchment newspaper since it is compostable!

Three: Thinly slice the citrus

This stride is crucial to perfectly stale citrus! I recommend using a mandoline so you can guarantee the fruit is sliced evenly. All the same, if you have keen pocketknife cutting skills using a very sharp knife also works.

slices of oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, and blood oranges on a baking tray — Fruit slices on the tray before existence dehydrated

Four: Add together to tray & broil 3-4 hours or more

Once the citrus has been sliced, add information technology to the parchment-lined tray (or tray coating with oil/ with a wire rack) and identify the citrus and so it is at least ½ inch apart between slices.

Then, bake the citrus anywhere from three-6 hours. I highly recommend removing the tray at the 2-hr mark and flipping the citrus as well as rotating the tray in the oven for the best results.

Some ovens run a piddling hotter or colder, so brand sure to only remove the citrus wheels from the oven in one case they are completely dried and all the moisture has been removed.

Otherwise, they will mold and now keep as long as they should. It's as well of import to note that the larger the citrus, the longer it will take to dehydrate. That means lemons and limes are likely going to be done earlier larger fruits like oranges and grapefruit!

picture of citrus labeled with text including blood orange, lemons, limes, navel oranges, cara cara oranges

What can I practice with dried citrus?

In that location are Then many ways to use dried citrus, just here are a few of my favorites:

ane: As a cocktail garnish

Try using dried grapefruit in Grapefruit Rose Paloma

Add a stale blood orange on summit of a Blood Orange Mint Mimosa

Dehydrated limes make a great garnish to a Tequila Smash cocktail

Dried orange slices are astonishing in this Cranberry Gin Buzz

two: As a dessert topping

I honey using dried lemons on layer cakes like my Lemon Lavender Cake

3: Add dried citrus to tea for flavor

It adds a citrus essence that is truly so enjoyable!

four: Make citrus sugar!

I absolutely love making citrus sugar! You can use information technology in many baking recipes if you lot want to add in extra citrus flavour. I specially dear doing this with lemons and have used it in my Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Donuts for even more than lemon flavor.

Dehydrated citrus carbohydrate likewise tin can exist used as a garnish around the rim of cocktails.

v. Make a citrus garland equally decor

This is particularly popular to exercise during the Holidays with orange slices and cinnamon. Notwithstanding, I personally feel it tin be a great ornamentation year-round!

6. Dip it in chocolate & eat

Don't forget to add a niggling flaky sea salt on top! The combination of citrus, sugariness chocolate, and ocean common salt is admittedly divine.

a lemon lavender cake and cocktail using dried citrus wheels as a garnish — Two ways to employ stale citrus- on top of a cake and equally a cocktail garnish

How to store dried citrus:

If you have properly dehydrated your citrus (aka no moisture remains) and then they can actually last for several years! I have some that have lasted up to iii-5 years that I use every bit decorations.

I find dried citrus is all-time within one year if you are using it on baked goods, in teas, and every bit a cocktail garnish for the best flavor.

When storing, make sure to shop my citrus wheels in a airtight container or zip-loc bag in the fridge or dark cold space in your dwelling. This will help the citrus terminal longer and proceed the radiant bright color longer.

I hope this guide on How to Dry Citrus in the oven helps you make these gorgeous citrus wheels from the comfort of your home. Savour!

-TSG

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overhead shot of dried citrus wheels including blood oranges, navel oranges, limes, and lemons

▢ two Lemons cut into ¼ inch slices
▢ 2 Limes cut into ¼ inch slices
▢ i Blood orangish cutting into ¼ inch slices
▢ 1 Cara Cara Orange cut into ¼ inch slices
▢ 1 Navel Orangish cut into ¼ inch slices

Preheat the the oven to 200F (or 170F if your oven can go lower) and make sure to set to convection oven settings. Then, line a tray with parchment paper and set bated.
Utilize a mandoline or a very sharp knife to slice the citrus into slices no more than ¼" in width. If the slices are thicker, they will have longer to melt.
Place the citrus slices onto the parchment lined tray and broil anywhere from 3-6 hours depending on the size of the citrus. Lemons and Limes take the least amount of time followed by oranges and lastly grapefruit which volition take the longest.
Later well-nigh 2 hours of baking, flip the citrus so the side facing the parchment newspaper is now exposed. Also, rotate the tray so that the citrus that was closest to the glass is at present in the back of the oven. Go on this process every two hours equally needed.
One time the citrus has no more than wet and is brittle to the touch, remove from the oven and allow absurd completely.
Use every bit a cocktail garnish, topping on a broiled proficient, or blend into a citrus sugar. Enjoy!

Please see blog postal service for cooking times for citrus as well as tips on how to use dehydrated citrus wheels
Dried citrus wheels tin can exist stored in a closed container in the refrigerator for several years assuming all the moisture has been removed. I adopt using them inside a year of making if using for an edible purpose such as a cake topping or cocktail garnish.
Follow these same steps to make stale citrus in a dehydrator, but dehydrate for half-dozen-8 hours at 135F.