A New England Christmas Stovetop Potpourri Gift Bag
When I mentioned on Instagram that the recipe and steps for my Christmas Stovetop Potpourri was on my blog, only to find out it wasn't, horrified me. I felt horrible that online friends came here to look for it only to find out it was not here. Poof! Gone! I don’t know if it got deleted in error of if it never made the transition from our old blog to this one. All I know is I had to rectify that and quickly.
I was able to find some of the old photos, but not all of them so bear with as I piece this Christmas stovetop potpourri post.
This is a very quick over
Items I use in my Christmas Potpourri Gift Bags (Which can also be used as a mulling spice WITHOUT the evergreen sprig)
Oranges
Apples
Cranberries
Cinnamon Sticks
Clove (not too much it is a powerful scent while cooking)
Sprig of highly scented evergreen like balsam per gift back
Keep in mind if you want to create a quick stovetop potpourri for yourself, you can skip the fruit drying steps. As I’m tying this, I have a pot of Christmas potpourri on the stove. It simply consists of water, fresh apple slices, fresh orange slices, powdered cinnamon (I had no cinnamon sticks), some clove, and a sprig of balsam.
My daughter dehydrates her fruit in a dehydrator whereas I like to dry fruit slices in the oven.
I thinly slice apples, oranges, sometime lemons, and place them in the oven, on foil or parchment paper and bake them in the oven at around 175 degrees to 200 degrees.
Make sure the slices are spread around and not laying on top of each other or they will steam cook, making them a bit soggy, vs bake.
The fruit will dry out in about an hour or few depending on your oven and how much fruit you are cooking at once. Keep an eye on them as they cook and take them out once they are lacking the moisture. They will harden a bit more once out the oven while air drying.
The picture below is a fairly fresh batch of potpourri that was on our stove while we baked Christmas cookies.
As it simmers, the needles will fall off of the stem, but that’s okay! We are going for the scent.
Below are a few photos of how I wrapped up this particular batch, but you can the Christmas potpourri in any air-tight container.
I packaged the New England Christmas potpourri in clear cellophane bags that I picked up at my local craft store. I sealed the bag with a wire tie (or elastic band), then I covered it with a festive ribbon.
For the orange peel spiral, I used a vegetable peeler and wrapped it around a pencil and let it air dry before putting it in the bag, but it made for a cute extra special touch.
