Candied Orange Peel

I think candying your own citrus peel is very worthwhile if you plan on making a recipe that uses it, because store bought peel is often stale and bitter, in part because they bulk it out with the albedo, the white fleshy part.

The recipe is pretty basic, but I just made some, and there are a few extra steps I take and a step I leave out, so it's worth noting my spin for future use.

Ingredients:

• 3 oranges
• 1 cup sugar

First you want to peel the oranges.  I discovered that a spiralizer I got for Christmas will make a very nice thin single rope of peel, so I used that.  But if you don't own one, just take a knife or potato peeler and carve strips off the oranges.  The key here is that they are thin and contain very little of the white.

Next you want to simmer them in a good ammount of water for 30minutes.

Then dump out and replace the water and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Here are my strips of peel simmering to remove bitterness

Next you are going to juice the oranges, then add water until you have 1 cup of juice+water.

Mix this with 1 cup sugar and bring to a boil

Add the drained peel and simmer over very low heat until the sugar solution has been condensed/absorbed (˜1hr), swirling or stirring every 10 minutes.

What the peel and syrup look like when the cooking is done.

Notice how condensed it is

Remove from the heat, let the pot cool, and place everythign in the fridge overnight.

Reheat the pot until the sugar solution is thin, and pull the peel out (I use chop sticks, but you can also poor it over a seive.

The peel should be left to cool on baking parchment.  At this point it can optionally be rolled in sugar.

The solution can be saved and used as a potently orange flavored simple syrup.

Finished, delicious and ready to decorate something.

To me, candied orange peel always looks like jewels