After searching pinterst for some inspiration, I decided to have a go at making my own Christmas decorations out of dried fruit.
I started with some oranges, lemons, limes, star anise, cinnamon sticks, kitchen string and ribbon.
To dry the fruit, I cut them into slices about 5mm thick. I placed them on a baking tray that had been lined with baking paper and blotted them with kitchen paper to remove the excess juice. I set the temperature on low and left them in the oven for hours, turning every hour or so.
Whilst the fruit was drying, my house smelt lovely and festive.
As you can see from the above picture, they didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped but they were still usable and I didn’t want them going to waste. I was expecting them to keep their colour but they went brown. The majority of the lemons were a disaster and couldn’t be saved. I figured that the centre of the fruit wouldn’t be seen, so I didn’t really mind too much about the browning.
I tied star anise and a cinnamon stick together with kitchen sting, threaded on the dried slices of fruit and tied a loop at the top with the string. I finished off with some red ribbon to decorate.
I made four decorations, two with mixed fruit slices, one with lime slices and one with orange slices. They may not look the best, but they smell amazing!!! They are cheap and so easy to make and can be hung on the Christmas tree or a door handle. Everyone should have a go at making these.
willowmakesthree 