With the proliferation of citrus fruit on our trees, I've had the luxury of experimenting with candying citrus peel. My goal was to develop a technique that would allow my citrus peel to have a natural and flavorful citrus taste using the least amount of sugar. I am sure this candied citrus peel could not be bought at stores, because it requires a few days of drying out. Dipping this candied citrus peel in dark chocolate and sprinkling it with sea salt combines various different tastes creating an amazing symphony in your mouth! So, if you have citrus on hand and want to do something different, try these!
Tips.
Drying the peel.
Many recipes call for boiling the peel in water to make it tender. In my experience, boiling the peel results in a "mushy" peel. This is good for marmalade, but not for candied citrus. For best peel texture, slice your peel into strips and let it dry out for one or two days. Keep some of the juice for the syrup.
Slice peel of citrus. Juice will be used for syrup.
Making the syrup.
Many recipes call for making the syrup with water. I use the actual citrus juice to make a syrup. The ratio of juice to sugar is 1:4. For 2 large oranges, I cut that into 32 strips and I only use 1/4 cup juice and 1 cup sugar. The sugar that I use for the syrup in granulated sugar. Before the syrup reaches the correct temperature, it will be bubbly and frothy.
Melt sugar with citrus juice for extra citrus flavor.
Sugar coating.
After dipping the citrus peel in syrup, these peels have to be coated with sugar to prevent it from being sticky. However, if you let the syruped peels dry for a day before rolling them in sugar, less sugar will adhere to them. So, if you want less sugar on your peel, allow them to dry longer before rolling them in the salt-sugar mixture.
Rolling peels in salted coase sugar.
Dip sugar coated peel into dark chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt.
Peels dipped in chocolate.
Helpful equipment.
Candy thermometer / instant read thermometer.
Sugar is very finicky. If you undercook it, it stays granular. If you overcook it, it becomes hard candy. The temperature of the syrup is a good indicator of the outcome of the candy. The thermometer is essential to get the syrup to the correct temperature in order to get the proper results. If you are using a candy thermometer, make sure the tip of the thermometer is not touching the base of the saucepan as this will result in an inaccurate reading.
Cleanup!
There's nothing more daunting than thinking about cleaning up sticky utensils. Rest assured. Cleanup is a breeze. Submerge all the sticky utensils in a basin of water for an hour and the sugar will dissolve! And for one particular person in my family, remember to come back and finish washing up!
Utensils soaked in water. Daughter forgot to come back and finish cleaning!
If you try this recipe, let me know how easy it was for you in the comment section!
CHOCOLATE COVERED CANDIED CITRUS PEEL
Ingredients
- 2 large oranges or citrus peel of your choice
Syrup
- ¼ cup citrus juice
- 200 grams sugar
Salted sugar coating
- 100 grams coarse sugar like turbinado cane sugar
- ¼-½ tsp sea salt depending on your taste
Chocolate coating
- 100 grams dark chocolate morsels
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
- sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
Prepare oranges
- Thoroughly clean skins of oranges.
- Cut the whole orange into half.
- Juice each orange half. Only need ¼ cup of juice.
- Remove pulp from rind.
- Cut the half of the orange into 8 strips. Each whole orange should yield 16 strips. For 2 oranges, you should have 32 strips.
- Allow the strips to air dry for 24 hours.
Prepare syrup
- Combine ¼ cup of juice and sugar in a small saucepan. Tip
- Boil and constantly stir mixture with a wooden spoon until temperature reaches approximately 250° F (125° C).° Tip
- Add strips to syrup until well coated.
- Using tongs, remove strips and place it on a cooling rack, making sure that each strip is separated.
- Allow to air dry for another 24 hours.
Coat in salted sugar
- Combine salt and sugar in a shallow bowl.
- Coat each strip individually and place on drying rack.
- Allow to dry before dipping in chocolate.
Dip in chocolate
- Combine coconut oil with dark chocolate in a narrow microwavable container that is large enough for your fingers to dip the strips.
- Melt chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave until the coconut oil is melted. Should be about 45 seconds depending on the strength of your microwave.
- Stir chocolate. The chocolate should be very viscous without any lumps. If not, microwave a little longer, making sure you don't burn the chocolate.
- Dip each strip into the chocolate and place on cooling rack.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and allow to dry.