Dried fruit ornaments and garlands!
So many recipes available in this wonderful web world we live in. Today I’m sharing my own personal recipe (Yikes) I’m a bit nervous to post this! Proceed at your own discretion LOL! If it works for you as it worked for me WOOHOO!!! to you and I.
Okay so today we are drying orange slices ( so far that’s the only fruit I’ve dried) I chose oranges because ( Why Not) They are perfect for hanging as ornaments and creating garlands with. Thinly sliced and dehydrated, they make translucent and glowing ornaments for the tree or mantel. Simply cut an orange into very thin slices and dehydrate in your oven. Easy peasy right!
Well not so peasy because most of the recipes I’ve found require my oven to run for 4 to 8 hours depending on the thickness of the orange slices. That’s a whole work day. Um! this girl right here does not have the time to be drying orange slices for that long. I don’t even enjoy cooking an actual meal for nearly 2 hours so I cut mayor corners….meaning I dried my oranges in a fraction of the time.
You can call me lazy or a genius. I prefer genius so I’m going with genius.
What You’ll need :
- 3 to 4 oranges ( I used naval oranges )
- cutting board
- knife
- paper towel
- none stick cookie tray or parchment paper on cookie tray
- twine , string or ribbon
- skewer
- scissors
My own personal Instructions
First I’ll share my own personal drying orange slices experiment/instructions. You can follow my instructions and tweak as needed. Try at your own risk.
At the end of this blog I’ll also share what I’ve researched to be the most popular way to dry orange slices on the web.
Tip: To preheat my oven ( I used the Conv. Bake option on my stove, convection bake circulates the heat inside the oven. I did not use a cookie rack so I figured I could use all the air circulation available to me)
My lowest Conv. Bake setting is 300 degrees which on my oven reads 275 degrees due to the fan circulating the heat inside the oven. Yes! I know that’s high but your girl went with it!
My Instructions:
- Preheat oven on Conv. Bake setting at 300 degrees
- Wash and dry oranges
- Slice oranges into 4-5 mm thin slices
- Pat dry orange slices with paper towels
- Arrange orange slices on none stick cookie sheet
- Insert cookie sheet into oven
- At the 30 minute mark check on your orange slices and flip if necessary ( I didn’t)
- 20 to 30 minutes later check again
- By this point oranges should be ready or close to being ready to be pulled out
- FYI: A few of my orange slices were crispy and dark but not burnt others were still a little soft in the center
- Wait a few minutes for slices to cool down poke a hole and string them
- Tip: I strong and hung my orange slices then left them to continue air drying on their own. (meaning they finished drying while they decorated my tree)
That’s It! All it took was 1 hour!!!! OMG 1 hour instead of 8.
They may not be completely dehydrated but they are dry enough to let them continue air drying on their own.
My advice is check on your orange slices every 15 minutes and flip as many times as needed. The next time I make them that’s what I’ll be doing. Now that’s Easy Peasy!
If you try this method let me know if it worked for you and if you had to tweak it.
Now for the most popular way to dry orange slices on the web, in a nutshell.
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees
- bake for 4 to 8 hours
- flip slices several times
- cool down overnight
- poke holes and string