Candied Citrus Peel

I am not big on plain ol' oranges. Blood oranges, clementines, pumelo, any other citrus and I am excited. Every holiday season we candy citrus peels for our panettone. This year, I used what I had in the fruit bowl which ended up being pink grapefruit, navel oranges, and satsuma mandarins.

And a quick note: use organic. You're spending time and money to eat the peels; you don't want to be consuming chemicals and pesticides!

Ingredients makes approximately 6 cups

• a variety of organic citrus fruits
• water 
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups organic granulated sugar plus more for rolling
• Also needed: heavy bottom skillet, colander, baking sheet lined with parchment paper

Procedure

 

Peel the citrus and slice into strips.

 

Place all of the citrus in a large, flat-bottom pan. Add cold water until they are floating. Bring the pan to a boil. Drain. Add cold water until they are floating and bring to a boil again. Drain. Repeat a third time.

Then create a simple syrup by bringing the water and sugar to a simmer and cooking till the syrup thickens. Place the citrus and simple syrup in the flat-bottom pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the citrus is translucent and the syrup is thickened and sticking to the fruit. Ours took about 90 minutes.

 

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the citrus to a bowl full of granulated sugar. Roll the citrus in the sugar. Lay out on a parchment-lined cutting board and leave to dry.

You'll be seeing these in our panettone. Stay tuned...I actually tried a new recipe and that will be our standard moving forward. It was so tasty!