Dried orange slices: how to dry oranges for decoration and culinary purposes

How to dry oranges for decoration

For decoration, you can use oranges of different diameters, the main thing is that they are bright orange in color and, preferably, do not contain seeds.

First of all, the fruit must be thoroughly washed. Next, the cutting is done into rings up to 5 millimeters thick. For uniform drying, it is important to maintain even cutting across the entire diameter. You should not cut it too thin, as the slices will eventually turn out translucent and will look less impressive in the composition.

To maintain brightness, the slices are soaked in acidified water for 20 minutes. To do this, prepare a solution of 1 liter of water and the juice of one lemon.

To speed up the evaporation of the liquid, the slices should be thoroughly blotted with paper towels or napkins.

Now let's decide on the drying method.To do this, you can use an oven, an electric dryer or a regular room battery. The last option is relevant only during the heating season. In the summer months, you can dry oranges for decoration on the windowsill under the influence of the sun's heat.

In the oven

Place the prepared citrus slices on a baking sheet covered with parchment. The layout should be carried out at some distance from each other to avoid sticking of the products.

The tray is placed in an oven preheated to 100 - 120 degrees. To allow air to circulate freely, the door should be left slightly open.

Drying time varies from 4 to 8 hours and depends on the thickness of the oranges. The drying process must be strictly controlled to prevent overdrying and burning. You will need to remove the baking tray several times and turn the fruit over.

You can also dry whole oranges as decorations. To do this, the fruits are washed, and then the skin is cut in several places around the entire circumference. The blanks are placed in the oven and dried for approximately 10 hours.

In an electric dryer

The process of drying orange slices in an electric dryer takes a little longer, but it is more comfortable, since this unit heats the surrounding air much less compared to an oven.

Sliced ​​orange slices are placed on trays in one layer. The pallets are placed on an electric dryer heated to a maximum value of 70 ºС. Approximately every hour and a half, the trays will need to be swapped so that the fruits dry more evenly. The total drying time is 10 – 12 hours. Readiness is determined by the rustling sound of the crusts and fragile pulp.Under-dried oranges will be elastic inside, which can later lead to their rotting.

On battery

This method allows you to make the slices absolutely even, without dents or bulges. But to use it, you need to build a special drying chamber.

To do this, 4 blanks are cut out of thick corrugated cardboard: two – 30*10 centimeters, two – 10*2 centimeters. Large parts are pierced with an awl in several places, and then small strips are glued to them. You can see how to do this correctly in the photo.

The prepared orange slices are placed between the plates and secured with paper clips or rubber bands.

In this form, the design is sent to the battery. Drying time takes 3 - 4 days.

If the heating season has not yet begun, then you can simply place the cardboard with oranges on the windowsill and wait for the fruit to dry completely under the influence of the sun’s heat.

To ensure that the cardboard structure retains its shape for as long as possible, do not forget to thoroughly dry the oranges before storing them.

Watch the video from the “Vekoria Handmade” channel - how to dry citrus fruits for decoration

How to dry oranges for culinary purposes

You can dry oranges for food using all the methods described above, except for drying on a radiator.

It is best to cut tea slices in half, and chips can be made round. To make chips, you can use a topping in the form of powder or ground cinnamon.

A video from the “Let’s Chew” channel – Orange Chips – will tell you in detail how to cook orange chips in the oven. Simple recipe.

Don't forget that orange zest is also used in cooking.The channel “IVSkorohodov” will tell you how to properly dry peels at room temperature, as well as how to use them - Orange peels drying and use