Candied fruits are called candied fruits or berries, prepared by prolonged digestion in saturated sweet syrup, followed by drying. As a rule, candied fruits are made from quince, cherry, peaches, mountain ash, pineapple, papaya, as well as lemon, watermelon or orange peels. The finished product is stored in a dish with a ground lid without access to moisture. Used to decorate or flavor pastries, desserts, fruit salads.
Making candied orange peels is not much more difficult than cooking ordinary berry jam. True, this process cannot be called fast, because fruits must be boiled for a long time, then dried, crumbled in icing sugar, packaged in jars. You will have to tinker a lot, but as a reward you will get tasty and healthy sweets, and even fragrant, thick syrup, which is perfect for soaking biscuits.
This article provides the most detailed instructions on how to make candied orange peel yourself.
Express Recipe
Cooking candied fruits takes several days, given the cooking and drying times. But there are also faster cooking options. The result is no worse.
For syrup, you will need granulated sugar in the amount of two glasses and two liters of water, a little citric acid or vinegar (the solution should have a slightly sour taste). Take so much of orange or lemon peel that all of it could freely fit in the dishes. Before cooking, the peel does not need to be cut, it will be enough to remove it. For sprinkling, prepare powdered sugar (glucose, fructose in powder will do). However, you can, especially without bothering, use ordinary granulated sugar for sprinkling.
First, we need to speed up the cooking time of the orange (lemon) peel. To do this, we use the following method.
Pour two liters of water into the pan, put the peel and put on fire. After the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat and leave to cook for another fifteen to twenty minutes. Then the peel is thrown back onto a sieve, washed and again set to boil, pouring cold water. This time, add a little salt to the water to remove the bitter taste of the peel. After fifteen minutes, drain the water again, rinse the skins and repeat the operation for the third time. After that, we wash the washed skins in strips and go directly to cooking in syrup.
Put the orange peels in a saucepan, pour hot water in which the sugar is diluted and cook until the syrup thickens, not forgetting to stir, so as not to burn. At the end, add citric acid, boil for another two or three minutes, pull out the peel with a slotted spoon and lay it on a wire rack so that the syrup is stacked. Bake the finished candied orange peels in icing sugar, put on a baking sheet and put in a warm, disconnected oven to dry. If you are going to use candied fruits as a filler for baking or dessert, you can put them in a jar immediately after cooking.
Candied orange peels. Traditional recipe
To make candied orange peels, gently peel the fruit, then cut the albero (the white layer between the zest and pulp) and soak for a day. Water will need to be changed several times to permanently remove the bitterness. After soaking the crusts, cut into thin strips and boil until they become soft.
Sugar syrup for making candied fruit is based on a ratio of 1: 1.5 (a glass of water and a half glass of sugar). After the sugar has completely dissolved and the water boils, put the sliced crusts in a container with syrup and boil until thickened. Finding out if the syrup is ready is very easy. Just drip it onto any smooth surface. If the drop does not spread, but retains its shape, then candied fruit is almost ready. Remove the pan from the stove and leave the crusts in syrup for a couple of hours so that they are completely saturated. After that, we take out candied fruits with a slotted spoon, roll in sugar and lay on a wire rack for drying.
To give the finished candied fruit a pleasant sweet and sour taste, you can add lemon juice to the cooking syrup. By the way, it is much more useful than the citric acid or vinegar recommended in many recipes .
If you do not have the opportunity to cook candied fruits on the same day, citrus peels can be dried. After soaking, they will return to their original form.
Good appetite!