Candied Citrus Peel

I know we had a little celebration on this post because I finished my student teaching, but we need to celebrate again, ok? Tomorrow my husband is graduating! He will have his bachelor’s degree! I am so proud of him. He will be so mad when he reads this, but I need to brag for just a minute. He has been so sweet to pack up and move so that I could complete my student teaching. He took his entire last semester online so we could move. He has managed to maintain a 4.0 through the whole 4 years, get accepted to 4 medical schools, and still make time to be my best friend. He is playing a concert-bass solo at graduation, too. Good luck tomorrow, Benj!

Anyway, I just had to do a little tribute because Benj also really helped me make this recipe. I didn’t give myself enough time to finish it. I had to leave to judge at a high school debate tournament and the orange peels were still bubbling in the sugar. I should have stayed home because I managed to fall down the stairs at the tournament and mess up my ankle. (Its feeling much better today, though.) Anyway, I left him with the job to remove the peels from the sugar water and lay them out to dry. He was so busy with his finals that he turned the heat off to let them cool for a minute. He left them for about an hour sitting in the sugar water because he was in the middle of a timed test and it hardened into a big solid block of sugar, water, and orange peels. He had to go through the trouble of re-melting the solid block and fishing out the peels. I appreciate that he was so willing to help me and make it just perfect by the time I got home, even though he was so busy with finals. The whole reason it all happened was my fault. I accidently read the recipe wrong and boiled the sugar in 1 cup of water instead of 4, making a much  thicker sugar mixture. Oops.

I had never even thought to make use of the orange peel until this winter. I had no idea that the peels can turn into something so much like candy. They taste very similar to orange sticks. You know, those sticks of orange jelly stuff covered in chocolate. This was a really fun experiment and I think the Christmas season is the perfect time to give this recipe a try.

Ingredients:

• 3 oranges (or 2 grapefruit or 4 lemons)
• 4 C. sugar (plus more for coating)
• 4 C. water (plus water for boiling at the start)
• melted chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Wash and dry the oranges.

Make cuts along the curve of the orange, but not cutting through the orange flesh. Make about 4 of these cuts spaced evenly around the orange. Peel back the peel in these segments that you have created. Try not to tear these.

Slice these segments into smaller strips.

2. In a large pot, just cover orange strips with cold water. Bring that water to a boil and drain with a colander or sieve. Then repeat that step of boiling and draining 2 more times. This removes the bitterness from the orange peel. After the third time, set aside.

3. In the same pot, heat 4 cups of water and the 4 cups of sugar until boiling. Stir it occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Wipe the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming.  Then add the orange peels. Let them simmer at medium low heat for at least and hour (2 hours wouldn’t hurt). By the end of the time the peels should start to act limp and look slightly translucent.

4. Let the syrup cool and remove the peels. Place them on a wire cooling rack set over a baking sheet to catch the drips. Let them drip and dry for about 30 minute. Then roll them in the extra sugar to coat them. I skipped this step because I didn’t have time and didn’t want to make my husband do it with all his finals. Let them dry overnight at room temperature. To speed this up, place them in the oven on the lowest setting for about 30 minutes.

5. Dip them in melted chocolate and let the chocolate harden on a sheet of wax paper.

Storage: These will keep well wrapped or in a air tight container for about 2 weeks.

Note: You can also skip the chocolate step,cut them up, and put them in bread or pastry dough.

Recipe and tutorial from About.com