Candied Orange, Lemon and Lime Peel

I think my tastes must have matured a bit since I last tried to eat Candied Orange Peel. Granted I was only nine or ten at the time but I really remember that I didn’t think too much of it. Well since then, I’ve grown up. As we had some imported fruit from half way around the world that really was past its best, I decided to give this recipe a go and see if I could candy the peel.

Overall, I have to say that I was very impressed.

You really get a burst of citrus as you eat the candied peel without the bitterness of the pith. However, for me this isn’t the best bit. If I had to choose the one thing that I really love, it’s the aroma. As you open the air tight jar to get at the peel, it’s like being hit in the face with a citrus blast. Just brilliant!

Ingredients

1 orange
1 lemon
1 lime
600g caster sugar
300ml water
100g dark chocolate (optional)

Directions

Slice up your Orange, Lemon and Lime. Large fruit like Oranges should be cut into eighths. Smaller fruit like the Lime should be quartered.

Remove the fruit from the skin and either set aside for later use or simply eat it. This can usually be done with your fingers on the Oranges as the skin will come off fairly easily.

For the Limes and Lemons you may need to cut the fruit out with a sharp knife to prevent the skin from tearing.

Remove the bitter pith from the inside of the skins.

The first stage of this process is to lay the skin on a chopping board and use a sharp knife to cut as much of the pith away as you can.

Then again lay the skin on the board but this time stand the blade up and use it to scrape away any remaining pith. You will know when you have gone far enough when you can start to see the spots from the outer skin showing through.

Slice each clean skin segment into thin strips. You would normally aim to get four strips out of each skin segment but the yield will ultimately be determined by the size of your fruit.

Prepare the sugar syrup by mixing the sugar and water in a pan over a mid to high heat. Keep stirring until the syrup starts to boil and turns clear.

As soon as the syrup has turned clear, reduce the heat to its lowest setting and add the prepared peel.

Be especially careful to avoid splashes when adding the peel as sugar syrup burns are particularly nasty.

Make sure all of the peel is covered by the syrup and simmer it for a further 30 minutes without stirring.

After the thirty minutes have passed, remove the syrup from the heat and set it aside as is to cool for four to six hours. Again, do not stir the mixture.

 Once the syrup has cooled, scrape off the top crust and remove the peel, piece by piece, shaking off any excess sugar before laying them out on a piece of baking paper to dry overnight.

Once the peel is completely dry it is ready to eat or you can transfer it to an air tight container for storage where it will keep for up to a couple of months.

As an optional step, you can also coat the peel in chocolate before serving. Simply melt some chocolate and dip one end of the peel into it. I usually coat between half and two thirds of the length of the piece. Once coated, again lay the peel out on some baking paper to allow the chocolate to set.

Our How to Melt Chocolate page provides more details on the Chocolate melting process.

Preperation time: 45 min
Cooking time: 45 min
Total time including cooling and drying: Up to 24 hours
Yield: 64 pieces
Recipe By Martin, Flavoursome Delights