How to Dry Lemon Slices Without Oven

How to dry lemon slices without oven is here. Dried in a dehydrator is a great way to make this pretty garnish on desserts, or ground into a powder to add tart into recipes. If you loved our how to dehydrate apples post and want to try other fruits this is another fun one.

How to Dry Lemon Slices

If you are new to drying foods welcome!! It is easier than you might think actually. Yes there are machines out there made to do this one thing but you can dehydrate in an oven too!! We have done it all and they all work well. Not only for produce but have even made dehydrated dog treats this way too!

We will share how to use the whole entire fruit, no waste here. You may have used fresh lemon zest in sweet breads but you can grind the outsides once crispy and sprinkle that into dishes to add some tang! Similar idea to our dried jalapeno ground into a powder that adds spicy to dishes and lasts much longer than keeping them fresh.

How to Dehydrate Lemons without an Oven

This isn’t just for these either, you could use these same directions for dehydrated bananas or any other citrus fruit! Want to make dried limes or dried oranges maybe? You’re in luck! Once you have one of these handy driers you can make tons of snacks and garnishes.

How to Use Dried Lemon Peel

I would only rehydrate the actual slices, not the peels. Those are better to grind into a fine lemon powder and then sprinkled on top of things like our cake mix lemon bars instead of zest. Will give you the same zing you want but don’t have to have fresh fruit at home to get it.

For rehydrated lemon peels I would use those to dice up and throw into lemon crinkle cookies to add just a bit of chunky into the batter instead of a fresh squeeze of the juice.

If you are only wanting the outside rind, this is how to make homemade fresh squeezed lemonade from scratch with the juices. I hate to waste so let’s use the whole thing shall we?

How to Dehydrate Lemon Peel

• Dried Lemon Peel – Scrub outside of lemon skins to remove wax from store. Dry well.
• Slice lemon peels into uniform pieces so they dry evenly.
• Spread out on dehydrator trays without overlapping Dry at 135° F in dehydrator until hard and crispy, approximately 6 hours, or until crisp.
  • This may take longer depending on humidity in your area.
• Allow to cool on rack. Store in sealed jars or in mylar sealable bags for long term storage if you want them left whole.

If you want to know how to dry lemon peel in order to make a citrus zest by making a powder out of these, use a spice grinder for a very fine powder, food processor or blender to make lemon peel powder.

What Can You Use Dehydrated Lemons For?

If you dry the whole thing they are often times used as a garnish. I do this on top of the glaze when gifting our zucchini lemon poppy seed bread loaves during the holidays.

• Peels can be grated or blended to a powder and used in baking, puddings, candies, salad dressings or in smoothies and drinks for flavoring and vitamins.
• In baking, you may add 1/2 cup fruit powder per 1 cup flour.
• Blend in with your dry ingredients for an extra zip to your baking.
• Dried lemon slices can be a beautiful garnish on top of cakes.
  • At the beginning you could sprinkle sugar on the top to make them lightly candied dried fruit

If you wanted them really sweet almost like packaged and dipped in sugar you’d want to follow directions for candied fruit. This one is really explaining how to preserve the fruit in it’s natural state.

This is if you want to use the whole thing in tact, sliced, to dress up your lemon curd cake let’s say. Now realize that the thicker your slices are the longer it will take to get crispy. That is why there is a range for baking time. The flavor and aroma will be the same either way but if your citrus slices aren’t the consistency you want, leave them in and check every 30 minutes until they are.

How do you dry lemons without an oven?

• Dried Lemons – Wash and dry the outside skins until they are completely dry.
  • if you want to remove the yellow rind, but just a bit you can use a vegetable peeler to get to the white part underneath and go from there.
• Cut the lemons into thin slices (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick) or into wedges.
• Preheat your oven or dehydrator to 135 degrees -140 degrees F.
• Arrange the lemon slices or wedges in a single layer on a baking sheet or dehydrator tray lined with parchment paper.
• Place the baking sheet or dehydrator tray in the oven or dehydrator and let the lemons dry for 8-12 hours. Flip the lemons over halfway through the drying process.
• Check periodically to make sure they are drying evenly and not getting too dark. Adjust the temperature or cooking time depending on how crisp you want them to become.
• Remove them from the oven or dehydrator and let them cool completely. Store the dried slices in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months.

** If using an oven, it’s a good idea to prop the oven door open slightly with a wooden spoon or oven mitt to allow moisture to escape and air to circulate out and get them crisp.

How Long Does Dried Citrus Last?

The most important aspect of how long and successful this will be long term is getting ALL of the moisture out of your pieces. You want to make sure that in the cooking process they get very crispy, without being able to bend them. Then make SURE they are totally dry and cooled, all the way. Then store in freezer bags with the air sucked out or in a tightly sealed jar, I like mason jars personally.

If you ground it up, like our jalapeno powder I use spice jars with a top so I can sprinkle it out easily when I want to use it.