You know those fruit slice candies? I adore those. They’re cut into half-moons to resemble little slices of fruit. They’re grainy with sugar, chewy and have a slight almost bitter taste from the fruit flavoring.
What can I say…they float my boat. I am powerless if there is an open box of them around.
But I’ve found something better — the real deal! Candied orange peel is easy enough to make yourself at home, and it has the same attributes — slightly chewy, a near-bitter under taste from the natural flavor of the peel, sweetness from the infused sugar and a pleasantly grainy exterior.
They’d make a great non-chocolate Valentine’s day sweet.
I’m in love.
Natural orange peel infused with sugar syrup and dusted with sugar makes a wonderful candy. They make a great non-chocolate sweet.
Ingredients
- 2 large oranges (I used Cara Cara oranges)
- 10 tablespoons sugar (I used Vanilla Sugar [2])
- 1 cup water
- Coating: 6-8 tablespoons sugar
Directions
- Lop about 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of each orange. Quarter each orange vertically. Peel the skin off the flesh. (Eat the flesh or use it in an Italian Orange Salad like this [3]!) You should have 8 segments of skin. Cut each segment into 1/4-inch-wide vertical strips (4-6 strips per segment, on average). Add strips to a small pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain (leaving peels in the pot), rinse with water and drain again.
- Add 10 tablespoons sugar and 1 cup water to the pot with the peels. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to make sure sugar has dissolved, and turn heat down to absolute lowest simmer. Simmer, covered, until peel is soft, about 45 minutes. Check periodically to make sure the peels are simmering (add another 1-2 tablespoons of water if it is drying up). If peels seem to be caramelizing (getting very brown and sticky), remove immediately from heat (you have probably cooked them at too high a temperature).
- Pour 6-8 tablespoons sugar into a wide, shallow bowl. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. When peels are done, remove them from sugar syrup (depending on how tightly the pot lid fits, you may or may not have liquid left at the end of the cooking). Add them to the bowl with the sugar, and toss the peels to coat with sugar; do this in several batches. Move them to the prepared baking sheet and let them dry, undisturbed, overnight (it might take 1-2 days).
- If there is any sugar syrup left from cooking, save it for use on your morning oatmeal or pancakes, or stir it into your coffee or sparkling water to flavor it.
- Eat candied peels as a little strip of candy, or chop to use in recipes, or be very fancy and dip half the peel-sticks in melted chocolate and allow to harden.
- Store candied peels in an airtight container. You may also wrap airtight and freeze for several months.
- Makes 8 servings.
Disclosure: For this recipe, I used Cara Cara Pink Naval Oranges sent to me by Cecilia Packing Corp., a grower, packer, shipper and marketer of California citrus.