a non-stick cookie sheet like THIS one (Amazon).If you plan on using your oven to dehydrate lemon zest, you will need: a jar or other food storage container to store your dried lemon zest.a box grater like THIS one (Walmart) or lemon zester like THIS (Walmart).a food dehydrator like THIS one (Walmart).If you plan on drying lemon zest with a dehydrator, you will need: These kitchen tools are imperative to not only zesting your lemons but also to preserving the dried lemon zest so it stays usable for longer ? What Do I Need to Make Dried Lemon Zest?īoth of the two ways to make dehydrated lemon zest and each one will require a mix of the same tools and different tools. Have you ever wondered what lemons look like after being fully zested? Now you know.
I actually don’t know which was easier though dehydrating lemon zest or learning how to dehydrate mushrooms like THIS (Six Dollar Family). If you have never dehydrated lemon zest, I promise it’s so easy you’ll wonder why! In fact, most dehydrator recipes like THESE(Six Dollar Family) are super simple. It gives a nice change up for a great beauty product! I love to make THIS DIY Orange Sugar Scrub (Six Dollar Family) with lemon instead. It’s even great in some DIY beauty recipes. It’s one of my favorite flavors to cook and bake with. Now I’m all set for any lemon recipes I want to make. It’s a fresh product though so my only option was to make dried lemon zest. Since I only had a few lemons, I really wanted to save the lemon zest I was making. Believe it or not, I was able to use those lemons three times for three different homemade items. How to Make Dried Lemon Zest and PeelĮven though I’m only paying $2.00 per bag, I want to use the produce I buy as much as possible. Such was the case with a bag of lemons recently. This means I often end up with produce that I need to find a way to preserve before it goes badly.
One of my local stores does bags of produce for $2.00 and normally they’re still really decent quality. The rest of your lemon can be saved for other uses, even after it has been zested, too.Not too long ago I found myself with some lemons I had purchased on clearance. You can use the same process for zesting oranges, limes and other citrus fruits, as well. This ultra-fine dice is packed with lemon flavor and can be used in any recipe that calls for lemon zest.
The dice may be a bit larger, but all the essential lemon oils are in there and you won’t have any of the bitterness of the pith. You want the pieces to be as small as possible to replicate the zest that’s produced by a microplane. Gather the strips together and cut them crosswise into very fine dice.
Place the strip of lemon skin flat on a cutting surface and cut it lengthwise into very thin strips, julienning the peel. If needed, you can use a knife to scrape off any pith on the strip of lemon. The peeler should easily grab just the zest, but you’ll need to be a little more precise with the knife. Take your vegetable peeler or paring knife and cut a strip of yellow skin off of the lemon. There are two common tools you can use to get the skin off of your lemon without one of these specialty tools: a paring knife or a vegetable peeler.Ī cheese grater might seem like a good option, but often the grates are either too deep or too shallow to efficiently get the zest off of the citrus. Simply hold the zester steady and slide the lemon down over the shape textured side. How to zest a lemon Option 1: Use a microplane or zesterĪ microplane or a zester is designed to make very shallow cuts in the skin of a lemon, peeling off the oil-filled skin without removing any pith. The pith is somewhat bitter and does not contain much lemon flavor, so you don’t want to mix any of that in with your zest. The white part underneath the colorful skin is called the pith. If you pierce the skin of a lemon, you’ll probably see a small spray of what looks like lemon juice coming from the peel. The zest is the yellow skin of a lemon, or the outer layer of any citrus fruit It is loaded with citrus oil, where a lot of the aroma and flavor of the lemon is concentrated. The easiest way to zest a lemon is using a dedicated microplane or zester, but it is absolutely possible to get that lemon zest even without any special tools! What is lemon zest? Lemon zest is an essential ingredient in both sweet and savory cooking.