How To Dry Orange Slices For Christmas

by Cindy Cloches and Lavender

2 Materials

6 Hours

Easy

Welcome to Cloches & Lavender where I share crafts, DIY's and home décor ideas. Making a house a home is my goal on a budget.Besides the natural look they add to my décor, making these, makes the home smell wonderful. It’s also easy to dry them.Incidentally, the most work for this craft comes from cutting and slicing the oranges. Not too bad, right, especially for the holidays with your family. By the way, get your little ones involved in this activity of drying orange slices. I will share a fun step they can help with and make memories along the way. Besides making memories with family is what the holiday season is all about!Drying Orange SlicesTo begin with, how to dry orange slices is all about low and slow. First off, you will want to preheat your oven at 180 degrees. If your oven doesn’t go down that low, no worries 200 degrees will work fine.If your are drying at 200 degrees after flipping the dried oranges keep an eye on them when you are down to the last half hour.As your oven is preheating this is a good time to gather supplies for drying your oranges:

oranges
baking sheets/sheet
oven safe rack – I use a stainless steel cooling rack upside and it works great
knife
parchment paper

Now that you have your supplies, make the orange slices 1/4 thick for drying. Place each slice on the rack to begin the drying process.But wait, this is optional, however, I do this and it never disappoints. Also this is the steps the entire family can get involved in and make some memories. Sprinkle A Bit Of Spices:

clove
cinnamon
nutmeg

Now place your orange slices into the oven and begin the drying process. Adding these spices makes the house smell beautiful. Incidentally, the spices add beauty to the dry oranges too.

Allow the oranges to dry for 5 to 6 hours. Check them at the halfway point and flip them over to continue the drying process. The slices should be completely dry. By the way, if your oven is set for 200 degrees the drying process make take a little bit less time.Incidentally, you want to make sure your citrus is completely dried.

Of course, if you don’t want to make dried orange slices, you can buy them.Drying Whole Mandarins/ClementineBesides drying orange slices, I thought it would be fun to dry whole mandarin/clementine. In addition to your dried orange slices, mandarins/clementine are a great way to carry your citrus theme throughout your home.Drying oranges whole for the most part, is the same as drying of the orange slices. Here, you want to slice through the orange peel carefully. You want to slice at 12 o’clock, 6, 3 and 9. Also when making your slices make sure you leave the ends connected to the orange. This is important because this keeps the orange together.

After making your slices, roll the mandarin/clementine on a papertowel and some excess juice will come off. Next lay the oranges on an oven safe cooking rack. Stainless steel is best.

Next place the sheet pan with oranges in the oven and let them dry for 6 hours. After trying this a few times, I find drying the mandarins/clementine works best after 6 hours take them out of the oven. After taking them out let them dry in the air out of sunlight for a few weeks. Also, as they are air drying check to see how they are drying. Enjoy the dried orange slices for many, many years to come! The oranges slices can be enjoyed for years, however, the whole oranges will last through New Years.Dried orange slices can be used for many projects. Wreaths, garlands, ornaments and sprinkled throughout your home in your Christmas decorating.

I hope you enjoyed learning how to easily dry orange slices and whole clementine.Be sure to follow Cloches & Lavender to be sure to never miss ideas for your home.