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Caramelized Orange Peels

Caramelized Orange Peels

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Making candied or other citrus peels,  is a good way to use up the rind and it goes good with any citrus flavoured cake. Try it as it tastes amazing.

A few days ago I saw this recipe of a Panacotta using these peels, made by one of my friends and immediately I knew I wanted to make them.

Unfortunately my friend had forgotten to post how she made the caramelized orange peels and left me a note in my last post that she would update the recipe on Monday.

oranges

However, on Sunday I cooked something using oranges, so instead of throwing the peels away, I decided to make them without any recipe.

Grating the orange

I have worked with citrus peels before when making spoon sweets and I know that they are bitter so after grating them and removing most of the white part and cutting the peels into thin stripes, I boiled the peels three times, each time changing the water.

orange peel

I then made a caramel syrup and added the peels and finished by adding butter and fresh cream.

I then fell ill and the caramelized orange peels are still waiting patiently in the refrigerator to be used.

When I got better I made a few desserts to use them.

If you make fruit preserves and have some ready made ones, the only thing you need to do is cut them into stripes and drain them.  If you want you can coat them with sugar and dry them.

 

Orange Roulade

 

Caramelized Orange Peels

Ingredients:

  • Orange peel from 2 oranges
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon butter
  • 4 tbsp fresh cream

 

Directions:

  1. Wash the oranges, and grate the zest.
  2. Cut them into quarters and remove pith.
  3. Cut them into thin slices, put them in a pot with water and bring to a boil. Drain, add fresh water and repeat once more.  Repeat another time, drain set aside.
  4. In a frying pan or small pot, add sugar, lemon juice and water. Bring to a boil and stir constantly until the syrup starts caramelizing.  
  5. Before turning brown, add the peel and mix.
  6. Cook them for three minutes.
  7. Finally add the butter and fresh cream and mix.
  8. Allow it to cool and store in the refrigerator to serve on top of desserts.

cake

Update:  27 June 2013

Since making this Candied Orange Peel, I’ve been experimenting with candying other types of citrus peels as well as other fruit preserves.

 

After taking the zest to make lemon liqueur, I juiced the lemons to make lemonade and I used the leftover peels to make candied lemon peel.

I boiled the peels to soften and removed the pith.

removing pith from the lemon peels

I then cooked the lemon sticks in a sugar syrup and cooked the peels for 10 minutes.

I then drained the peels and then covered them in sugar.   As they need a few days to dry, depending on the weather, cover them with a tulle, so that insects, especially, flies will not sit on them.

Leftover syrup can be used to wet sponges, or any other Greek desserts which are drenched in syrup, such as baklavas, galaktoboureko, revani, karydopita etc.

cooking lemon peels

Candied Lemon peels

Ingredients:

  • The peel of 3 lemons
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 1  cinnamon stick
  • 5 – 6 clove
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

  1. Boil the lemon peels several times, changing the water a few times, until soft.  Drain and cut them into stripes.
  2. Add water and sugar in a pot and mix on the heat until the sugar dissolves.  Add the lemon peels, bring to boil, lower heat and cook until the syrup thickens, for about ten minutes.  Add the lemon juice and mix.
  3. Turn off the heat and allow them to cool completely.
  4. Drain and dredge them into sugar.
  5. Place them on a tray until they dry.
  6. Store in an air-tight container.

 

Other relevant recipes:

Lemon Marmalade

Bergamot Spoon Sweet

Orange Preserve

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!

signature Ivy

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Sam Sotiropoulos

Sunday 9th of November 2008

Ivy, nice job! This caramelized shredded orange rind looks great and would make a great topping for all sorts of dishes. I hope your illness was nothing too serious and that all is well now?

Ivy

Saturday 18th of October 2008

Hi Pixen. Check out the link I have given for the original recipe. That one is really caramelized orange peels. I worked without a recipe and although they did turn out great, the butter and fresh cream I added make a lovely syrup but did not make them crunchy but neither mashy. About yours turning soft. How long did you boil them each time? Just bring them to a boiling point and then change the water x 3 times. I think I should clarify that in my post. This Yuzu citrus sounds so interesting. It's not coum couat is it?

pixen

Saturday 18th of October 2008

oh myyyyy Ivy, may you be blessed with sweeeeeeeeet life! I wished I can have some of your desserts right now with my coffee! I hope you're feeling better now. How's your check up?

I made candied orange peel few months ago and it's very tasty but not to my expectations. I used navel oranges and pink grapefruits with thicker skin. I tried to follow some of fellow foodie bloggers' method but...sigh... still am not happy with the results. I boiled 3x the peels as well which turned out too soft. Maybe I did it wrong...

Then I saw it... and bought a box of it from a japanese sweet counter when I was in Singapore! It's so crunchy and really my preferred 'candied peels' made from Yuzu - a japanese citrus with orange and lemon taste. The peels are dried and thinner, coated with shimmering castor sugar. You can even use it as garnish or eat it just like that. I'm so crazy about this fruit and now I'm 'babysitting' a yuzu plant belongs to my japanese friend whose daughter brought back the Yuzu seeds...LOL. I hope it will grow up well before it's return :-)

I guessed I have to retry again until I get it and aired my home with the orangy-citrusy-lemony aroma!

Jessie

Saturday 18th of October 2008

Oh, Ivy, these look great! I can't wait to try them.

+Jessie a.k.a. The Hungry Mouse

Ivy

Saturday 18th of October 2008

Thank you all for commenting.

Cake, I absolutely agree with you, as I usually put some of my spoon sweet citrus in the Christmas cake, so I think I will use some of this, this year.

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