Cabin Cooking: Candied Citrus Peel

Last summer when I made orange marmalade, I candied the leftover peels. What a treat!

Since then I've been saving citrus (orange and grapefruit) peels from our breakfast fruit bowls for another batch.

I selected a recipe from Bright-Eyed Baker's blog for Candied Orange Peel to follow. She has excellent directions and photographs for the steps to follow. Here's her recipe with my modifications in italics.

Candied Orange (Citrus) Peels

Ingredients:

• 3 navel or valencia oranges
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• ¾ cup water

Directions:

Wash oranges and remove peels. Slice off excess white pith and cut into ¼" strips. Save fruit for another use.

Poaching the citrus peels to remove bitterness.

Place the peels in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil then drain. Repeat two more times to remove some of the bitterness.

Each time I made a fruit bowl for our breakfast, I processed my orange and grapefruit peels. Once cool, I froze them in plastic bag so they would be ready to use.

Thawed citrus peels and preparing the syrup.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and water. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Let the syrup mixture cook for 8-9 minutes at a constant simmer.

Add the peels and cook for 45 minutes to an hour until they are translucent and the syrup reduces. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain a simmer.

Simmering the peels in the syrup.

Avoid stirring, as this will cause crystallization. If necessary, swirl the pan to make sure that all of the peels stay covered with syrup. This is where I goofed. The syrup on my peels crystallized. They taste fine, but aren't attractive. Visit MakeMessy's blog for more information.

Removing the finished peels from the syrup.

Drain remaining syrup and set aside for other use. There will probably be about a tablespoon or two left. Spread the peels out on a drying rack and leave to dry for 4-5 hours. Store in an airtight container.

Making candied citrus peels into a fruit leather.

I decided to use the leftover syrup to make something like a fruit leather with embedded candied peels. I covered a cookie sheet with parchment paper before pouring the syrup over the peels.

I don't have a dehydrator so I used my oven on low (150 degrees) for the drying process. It took several hours for the syrup to thicken into a fruit leather consistency. 

I removed the pan from the oven to cool. It was still quite sticky, so I rolled it right in the parchment paper. Then I used a Ziploc bag for storage. To enjoy my concoction, I unrolled the paper and pulled off as much as I wanted for a serving. It was finger licking good with a hint of orange bitterness!

Do you candy orange or citrus peels? What method do you use? -- Margy