Dry orange slices for a festive garland
Here's how to dry orange slices and assemble them with cinnamon sticks and bay leaves for a fragrant festive garland!
What you need
- Oranges, satsumas or other citrus fruit (to add a bit more colour, try adding lemon, lime or grapefruit)
- Cinnamon sticks
- Bay leaves, holly or other greenery
- Anything else you want to add to your garland
1) Slice the oranges
Start off by slicing the orange into pieces, around half a centimetre thick. Thin slices will dry quicker but don’t worry if they’re not all completely equal.
2) Make a hole
After slicing the orange, make a hole in the top of each slice using your skewer or chopstick. A chopstick makes a bigger hole, which will make it easier when threading your garland.
3) Time for the oven
Next, put your orange slices on a wire rack. They will dry quicker and more evenly using a wire rack but a baking tray can also be used, simply put the slices on baking parchment. Pop them in the oven at the lowest temperature it will go to for 4 hours.
Once the orange slices are no longer juicy, remove them from the oven and leave to cool. If they feel a bit tacky at first, don’t worry, leave them overnight to dry out completely.
4) Get assembling
Now it’s time to construct your garland!
Feed your twine or ribbon through the hole you made in one of your orange slices and tie a knot at the end. Then thread the other slices and cinnamon sticks through leaving space between each one to change the length of the garland. Remember to tie a knot after the last slice.
And there you have it, a Christmassy looking (and smelling) decoration that you can enjoy every year!
