Candied orange peels
Eating Orange peels? Like these?
Crazy, right?
We just throw the peels away, right? But on the other hand we buy chocolate covered orange peels in the supermarket and enjoy them. So why throw these away? Here is my version of the candied orange peel recipe. It’s not fast but it sure is fun…
Warning: addictive recipe!
By far this is my wife’s favorite candy of them all!
She loves these half coated with bitter chocolate (ok, to be honest, our local “bitter” chocolate is full of sugar, so it is far from bitter). As soon as I started making this recipe – we stopped buying the commercial brand and now I have to make these every winter! But I’m not complaining – I enjoy these myself and they are both easy and fun to make. Some of us like them as is while others must have a chocolate coating on the candy.
This doesn’t end there – you can cook with them or add them to your favorite deserts, cakes, ice creams and so on… just perfect…
Here is how to make these wonderful peels:
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Candied orange peels protocol:
Preparation time: 60 minutes
Complexity: medium
Required tools (as shown in the “how to” pages):
- A wooden spatula or long handled spoon
- A 1 liter pot, preferably stainless.
Ingredients:
- Orange peels – washed dried with a clean towel and weighed.
- Sugar, white granulated.
Protocol:
Store the orange peels in the refrigerator and collect peels from 3-4 oranges.
Weigh the peels before you start and write it down. Wash the orange peels and place them in the pot with a glass plate on top to prevent them from floating up. This will ensure the peels will soak up water and release some of the bitterness. Feel the pot with water (to the maximum capacity) and replace the water as often as possible. At the very least replace the water twice a day for the next 2-3 days. No later than the third day the peels must be cooked.
Cooking the peels is slow. Remove the last wash water and add 1.3 times the original weight of the peels. If you have forgotten or lost the original weight – that’s not a disaster. Weigh the peels and add X0.8 sugar (of the peels current weight). Why add less sugar? Remember the peels have soaked up water and they are heavier now.
Add water to cover the peels. The peels will float to the top so be sure not to use too much water (see the tips below). Cook on medium heat on a medium burner – you need to give the peels enough time to soak up the sugar (or more accurately – to give the sugar enough time to diffuse into the peels). During the boil make sure to mix the candies every 5-10 minutes so the peels floating on top will also get candied.
Once your syrup levels are low (1/2″ or 10mm or so) start mixing more frequently and be sure to monitor the pot constantly. As soon as you run out of syrup – it is time to shut down the heat source – but keep stirring. If you don’t – the bottom peels will get burned. Keep stirring for another 5 minutes or so to dry the peels a little further and then you can either leave them in the pot or our them onto some parchment paper.
That is it… just two ingredients and some time… but it’s well worth it!
Important notes:
- You can cut the peels to any shape you like. Use stainless cookie cutters and let the kids have a ball with those!
- If you have soaked the peels but don’t have the time to cook them – drain the water and place them in a well sealed bag in the freezer! You can store those for a year as long as your bag is airtight!
- Whatever you do don’t add an equal weight of sugar to the water soaked peels – sugar overkill is the right term (don’t ask me how I know this…)
Yours sweetly,
Saar
