Candied orange peel
Homemade candied peel has nothing in common with the stuff in supermarket sachets: it is soft, aromatic and translucent. The whole secret is blanching three times to strip the bitterness out of the pith, and slow cooking in a syrup of rising concentration.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Blanching three times 25 min
- Candying in syrup 60 min
- Drying 1440 min
Step by step
0 / 5 donePeel and cut the strips
Scrub the oranges in warm salted water. Score the peel into four quarters and lift it off along with the pith. Cut into strips 7 mm wide — they shrink noticeably during candying.
Ingredients: 5 pcs oranges · 2000 ml water · 1 tsp salt
TipChoose oranges with thick, rough skin. Thin-skinned ones give limp, poor strips.
Blanch three times
Cover the strips with cold water, bring to the boil and cook 5 minutes, then drain. Do this three times in all, each time with fresh cold water — with bringing the water to the boil it takes about 25 minutes. Each blanch takes more bitterness out of the pith.
Ingredients: 5 pcs oranges · 2000 ml water · 1 tsp salt
TipDo not cut it to two. The third blanch is the one after which the peel stops being bitter.
Fresh cold water each time — the bitterness leaves with the liquid.Cook in syrup
Dissolve the sugar in the water, add the lemon juice and drop in the peel. Simmer on the lowest heat for 60 minutes, uncovered and barely stirred. The syrup reduces and thickens while the strips turn translucent.
Ingredients: 400 g sugar · 400 ml water · ½ pcs lemon · 100 g sugar · 100 g dark chocolate
TipThe lemon juice stops the syrup crystallising. Without it the thickening syrup turns grainy more easily.
Translucency signals that sugar has replaced the water in the peel.Drain and dry
Lift out the strips with a fork and lay them separately on a rack over parchment. Dry at room temperature for 24 hours, until no longer wet and only slightly tacky — that way the sugar will cling to them. Keep the syrup for tea or baking.
Ingredients: 400 g sugar · 400 ml water · ½ pcs lemon · 100 g sugar · 100 g dark chocolate
Strips must not touch or they fuse into a block.Roll in sugar
Roll the dried strips in granulated sugar and store in an airtight jar. Prepared this way they keep 3 months. If you like, dip some strips (not rolled in sugar) halfway into melted dark chocolate and leave on parchment to set.
Ingredients: 400 g sugar · 400 ml water · ½ pcs lemon · 100 g sugar · 100 g dark chocolate
Before you start
Oven drying
Instead of a day on the counter, dry the strips for 2 hours at 60 °C with the oven door ajar. The result is almost the same.
Grapefruit and lemon
The same method works for lemons and grapefruit. Grapefruit needs a fourth blanch — it is far more bitter.
For baking
Chopped peel goes into fruit cake, panettone, poppy seed roll and gingerbread. It replaces shop-bought peel 1 : 1.