dried lemon zest

Dried lemon zest is a convenient and versatile ingredient. And it is super easy to make. Air dry the lemon zest if you have the time (perfect for a small amount of zest), or speed up the process with your oven.

How to Dry Lemon Zest

lemons*

Preheat your oven to 170 °F fan*. Or use your lowest oven setting.

If you have waxed shop-bought lemons, rinse them with just boiled water (or very hot tap water) and scrub them with a vegetable brush to remove the wax. Or use a clean tea towel to rub off most of the wax. You can skip this step if you have unwaxed organic or homegrown lemons – just give them a rinse with cold water.

Use a Microplane or the finest side of your box grater to remove the lemon zest. Alternatively, remove slices of lemon peel with a vegetable peeler. Try to get mostly yellow lemon skin and avoid too much white pith in your zest or lemon peels.

Spread the lemon zest or peels on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a single layer. And place the baking tray in the centre of your preheated oven.

Check on the zest after 30 minutes and stir. If it is not fully dried, return to the oven and check every 10 minutes. The yellow lemon zest will darken into orange, but it should not be brown. For me, this takes about 40 minutes. The whole lemon peels take longer to dry than lemon zest, about 2 to 3 hours – which is why I prefer to dry the fine zest. Check the drying lemon peels every 20 minutes or so.

To make lemon peel powder, add the dried lemon zest or dried lemon peels to a spice grinder. And blitz it into a fine powder.

Transfer your dried zest, peel or dry lemon powder to an airtight container or spice jar. Keep in a dark, dry space for up to one year.

Dried Lemon Peel is easy to make at home without the need for a dehydrator or even an oven.

How to Make Dried Lemon Peel

Lemons (washed and dried. Preferably organic)

Remove the peel from the lemons using a grater, microplane, zester, vegetable peeler, or knife. Be careful not to get any of the white pith. I zest them before cutting and juicing them.

Heat the oven to its lowest heat setting. (My oven’s lowest setting is 170° F.)

Spread the zest on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let it bake until the peel is dry, shriveled, and crispy. If the zest is very fine, it should be finished in 30 minutes to an hour. It will take longer if the peel is in strips, several hours should do it.

To dry in the oven:

Spread the peel on a dish or baking pan and let dry for several days, giving it a toss every day or so. The smaller the peel, the faster it will dry.

To dry on the counter:

When the peel is completely dry, store it in an airtight container.

The dried peel can be left as is, or ground into a powder in a spice grinder or blender.

To store:

Lemon peels, along with any citrus peels are good to put on Blue Hydrangeas, to keep them blue. You can also use coffee grounds, and egg shells. My soil is more alkaline, so I do this to keep my beautiful original blue Hydrangeas blue. Easier, and less expensive than buying products from the garden center, and more earth friendly, as we are using products that would otherwise just be thrown out in the garbage.

Dear Kelly, Indeed using dried lemon peels is a wonderful idea. We, in India have been doing it traditionally for ages. As you said you prefer to use the organic lemons, I completely agree with you because only organically grown lemons will be free of any chemicals and pesticides. (We have a big lemon tree in our backyard that provides us fresh organic lemons throughout the year :) ) Also in India we have a very hot and dry weather for most of the time in a year. So we prefer to dry the lemon peels by exposing them to the sun. It takes several days though, but I believe it is the most natural way of drying the lemon peels. I understand that the country you live in many not have abundant sunlight and hence you use oven to dry it, and which is fine too :) You have written a wonderful article and I want to thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge with original images with us. 

I have also pinned dried lemon powder image to my pinterest too :D

Thanks and Have a great day!

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Top 2 dried lemon zest recipes from across the web

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The most viewed dried lemon zest recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine