- Julie
WINTER WINDOWS
As habitual offenders of The Tree's Still Up in February variety, decorations that have life beyond the holidays almost feel necessary. Dried citrus, with no needles to shed and the ability to be re-used year after year, reigns queen in our home. Hang them in your window for a beautiful stained glass effect.
-citrus of any kind
-cookie sheet or pizza stone
-fishing line
-large needle
-tacks
Heat your oven to 200 degrees.
While your oven is reaching temperature, slice your citrus as thin as you're able without tearing the flesh of the fruit. Arrange citrus on a cookie sheet or pizza stone, touching is fine but overlapping your citrus will slow down the drying process. If you have a pizza stone, I recommend using it as the citrus will dry out faster.
Place citrus in your oven and check every half an hour to ensure no slices are burning. If a slice or slices look to be browning, flip them. Once your reach an hour in the oven, flip all of the slices. Continue to check on the slices for over-browning or burning, flipping as needed. After spending an hour on each side at 200 degrees, your citrus should be feeling pretty dried out. At this point you can turn your oven off and allow your citrus to finish drying in the warm oven. Or, you can continue drying and flipping it to your desired point of dryness with the oven on. How quickly your slices dry will depend on two things: what you're drying them on and how thin you were able to cut your slices. Thick slices on a cookie sheet at a lower oven temp can take all day, easily.
Once your citrus is dried, thread a large need with a long piece of fishing line. String your oranges up on your fishing line. I found my oranges stayed put without tying knots in the line. If your slices are thicker, they may need support. Tie a knot with a loop on one end of your fishing line and tack it on the top side of your window frame with your tacks.
Enjoy!
