How To: Make dehydrated Citrus at home

Make Your Own Citrus Wheels

Have you ever wondered how to turn fresh citrus into the most beautiful dried citrus wheels using your oven? If the answer is yes, I can't wait to share my guide on How to Dry Citrus in the Oven with you as well as some of my favourite ways to use your dehydrated citrus!

This process is a little time-consuming (3-6 hours total) however it's very easy because most of it is hands-off time while the oven does all the work.

What citrus can be dehydrated?

Any citrus can be dehydrated however for this post, I used the following:

Dried Lemons (2-3 hours)
Dried Limes (2-3 hours)
Dried Blood Oranges (3-4hours)
Dried Navel Oranges (3-4 hours)
Dried Grapefruit (5+ hours)

Step One: Preheat oven to 90*C

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

For my oven, 90*C Fan Forced is the perfect low temperature to bake my citrus wheels. If your oven can go lower you can set it all the way down to 75*C Fan Forced for similar results (although it will obviously take a bit longer to dry out the citrus).

By setting the oven at a low temperature, you are essentially very slowly dehydrating the citrus slices over a period of 3-6 hours by drawing out all of the moisture.

I always recommend using the Fan Forced setting in your oven if available. A Fan Forced oven has a fan at the back which helps to evenly circulate the warm air. This is ideal for dehydrating fruit and it actually makes the process faster!

Step Two: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or baking paper.

It's important to use baking paper otherwise the sliced citrus will stick to the baking sheet while dehydrating.

Step Three: Thinly slice your citrus.

You want the slices to be about 4mm thick. I recommend using a mandolin to guarantee consistent slices. However, if you have great knife cutting skills, a very sharp knife will also work. Spread your slices out so they aren't touching each other to allow the warm air to circulate around them.

Once the citrus has been sliced, add it to the parchment-lined tray and place the citrus so there is at least 1cm gap between slices.

Pop in the oven and allow the citrus to dry for around 3-6 hours. I would recommend removing the tray after around 2 hours and turning the citrus over as well as rotating the tray in the oven for the best results.

Some ovens run a little hotter or colder, so make sure to only remove the citrus wheels from the oven once they are completely dried and all the moisture has been removed otherwise they will go moldy.

Also important to note is that the larger the citrus, the longer it will take to dehydrate. That means lemons and limes are likely going to be done well before larger fruits like oranges and grapefruit.