How to Dehydrate Citrus for Crafts and Food
Learn to dehydrate citrus slices for use all year round, or as seasonal craft materials for holidays decorating and gifting.
Equipment
- Sharp Knife
- Cutting Board
- Jelly Roll Pans, or other baking sheets
- Hot Mitts
- Dehydrator, or Oven
Ingredients
- Variety of citrus
Instructions
- Slice a wide variety of citrus fruit into 1/4” thickness. Suitable citrus includes navel oranges, blood oranges, mandarin oranges, lemons, limes, pomelos, and grapefruit.
- Arrange on a dehydrator tray, if using a dehydrator, and dry for three to seven hours at 135F/57C. Start checking for done-ness around three hours.*
- Similarly, if using an oven, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the slices on the pan to dry in an oven at its lowest setting, usually 175F/70C. This will usually take between three and four hours, but start checking for done-ness at 2 hours to prevent scorching*.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature on a baking rack.
- Before dehydrating, you may zest the rind of the citrus and air-dry the zest for later use. This will affect the look of the rind for crafting purposes and will alter the flavor to make it weaker, but neither of those alterations are necessarily bad. Lemon zest can be used fresh or dried in many recipes.
Notes
*A sufficiently dried citrus slice with have no mushy parts. It will be dry to the touch and bounce a bit when you flap it onto a smooth surface.
Each oven is so different, so if you know yours runs hot, keep a close eye on the orange slices.
Dry odd bits and ends for potpourri, adding to drinking water, etc.
You can pre-cut a slice in one end (as seen in the picture) for crafting, or for decorative placement on the rim of a glass. We usually use these pre-cuts for making citrus ornaments.