Recipe: Dried Citrus Decorations

You’ll love this Cooler Than Compost recipe, and it’s right in time for the festive season.

Do you ever cut open an orange or a lemon to find it dried out inside? Or, perhaps there is a rogue citrus fruit at the bottom of your fruit bowl looking a bit worse for wear. Given that the festive season is right around the corner, we have a very quick and festive way to use oranges and lemons before you send them off to the compost.

Time: Less than 10 minutes to prepare, then bake on low for around an hour

Ingredients:

- One citrus fruit

Method:

1. Thinly slice the inedible piece of fruit. 

2. Arrange on drying racks or if you don’t have these then baking paper on an oven tray will do. 

3. Pop into the oven at 110 degrees C for around an hour, turning the pieces halfway through. 

4. The slices might need a little more time but you can check this as you go. 

5. Once they are completely dried out, and cooled, they are ready to be made into decorations!

Ideas:

• Thread a piece of twine or leftover ribbon through the slice and use to hang on your Christmas tree!

• You can also tie a citrus slice to a wrapped gift to give it an extra lift. We love using newspapers as wrapping paper or the Who Gives A Crap loo roll wrap. 

• I like to use the citrus slices on top of cakes or spread out around a cheese board to make it look just a little bit fancy!
  

Top tip:

These slices keep really well and you can use them year after year if you maintain them in an airtight container.