Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Candied Citrus Peels


After read the blog yesterday, a few people have asked for the recipe to the candied citrus peels. You can use any citrus fruit your prefer. I usually make lemon and orange. I  have never made the lime or grapefruit. My son loves lemons any way he can get them. If I let him, he will eat them like an orange. I usually use 5 lemons and 1 orange when making the candied peels, so the rest of us have a chance at the lemon ones.  
The trick to making these is making sure you cook the peels enough. If you do not, the orange especially will not taste good and will have that bitter peel taste to them. These are very simple make; a lot simpler than the fudge, I think.
Grandma’s Candied Citrus Peels:
Ingredients:
4 lemons, 2 oranges, and 2 limes
4 1/3 cups of water
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of raw or rock sugar, if need be white sugar can be substituted but it will change the look and taste of the peels
Directions:
Peel the fruit, and scrape off any of the white pith.
Julienne peel into strips, 1 ½ inches long by ¼ to 1/8 inch wide
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and simmer the peels six minutes
Drain and rinse in cold water, set aside
Bring 1/3 cup of water and white sugar to simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
When sugar is dissolved, cover and simmer for 8 minutes
Removed from heat and stir in the cooked peels, let steep for one hour.
After an hour roll remove peels from pan roll in the raw sugar.
I lay my peels out on a wire rack covered with wax paper to dry.