Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 211 kcal | 60 kcal |
| Protein | 8 g | 2.3 g |
| Fat | 2.2 g | 0.6 g |
| saturated | 0.3 g | 0.1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 47.3 g | 13.4 g |
| sugars | 18.2 g | 5.2 g |
| Fibre | 20.4 g | 5.8 g |
| Sodium | 15 mg | 4 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 2.3 kg lemons (about 23 medium)
Instructions
- Choose thin-skinned lemons and scrub the wax off under hot water. Wax is applied to stop the fruit losing water, which is precisely the thing you are about to ask it to do.
- Top and tail each lemon, then cut wheels at 6 mm. Thinner than that and the wheels curl into tubes; thicker and the pith stays damp for hours after the flesh is done.
- Pick the pips out with a knife tip as you slice. They carry a bitterness the peel does not, and grinding them into powder later spreads it through the whole jar.
- Lay the wheels flat on mesh without overlapping, and put the fat centre slices nearest the fan. End slices are mostly peel and finish well ahead of the middle ones.
- Dry at 52 °C for 27 hours. The flesh goes translucent and amber first, and the white pith is the last part to give in.
- A finished wheel is stiff, rattles when you drop it on the tray, and its pith snaps rather than squashing under a thumbnail. Any wheel that flexes goes back on.
- Cool them flat rather than stacked, then keep the whole wheels in a jar away from light for a year. They lose their scent long before they lose their crispness, so smell one before you use it.
- For lemon powder, blitz the cold wheels in short bursts and sieve the stringy bits out. Powder is far thirstier than the wheels are — keep it in a small jar filled to the top, because the air above it is what turns it into a lump.
