Candied Orange Peel Recipe

Candied orange peels, a simultaneously sweet and sour snack that leaves no wasted fruit behind, is so celebrated that the treat has its own holiday: May 4. Recipe developer, blogger, and food photographer Jennine Bryant remembers receiving the tasty and festive fruit as a gift from her uncle each Christmas. She's not the only one with sugared-fruit memories either. Candied peels are a popular holiday food favorite, and are often added to fruitcake, Italian Panettone, and other dessert breads, or even sometimes dipped in chocolate.

Using honey and sugar to preserve fruit goes back to ancient civilizations, including the Egyptian, Roman, and Mesopotamian cultures, with candied peels gracing banquet tables sometime in the Middle Ages. The secret to making this recipe is sugar ... and more sugar — first boiling the peels in sweetened water before tossing them in even more granules. 

"By replacing the fruit's natural water content with a highly concentrated sugar syrup, the fruit could be preserved for up to a year," said Bryant. After that, the peel can get dry and tough.

You can use different kinds of fruit peels with this recipe, too. It works well with lemons, limes, grapefruit, etc. Candied peels only take about an hour to cook, but it does require a day of drying time before you can eat your efforts. So plan accordingly.

You can probably make candied orange peels today, if you wanted. The few ingredients — just 2 large oranges, 1 and a ½ cups of sugar, and a cup of water — reside in most kitchens. Be sure the fruit used is firm and fresh, whether you choose traditional oranges, Mandarins, Valencia, or even blood versions.

Candied orange peels embrace environmentalism since the dish provides a perfect way to use up all those unwanted peels rather than just discarding them in the trash. Don't just peel the orange and take that skin though, your sweet will have more standardized strips if you use a peeler to remove the exterior. Be careful to secure the top of the instrument with your fingers, applying a slight pressure to keep it steady and then carve away from yourself creating thin, even strips. Then cut the peeled rinds into roughly ¼-inch slices.

Place the orange peel strips you've cut into a saucepan, fill it with water (about a ¼ full) and heat it until the water starts to boil. Then pour the contents into a strainer, catching your orange peels. Next, rinse the peels with cold water. This is an essential step — you don't want to skip it because the cool water removes any remaining bitterness from the fruit. 

In the same pan, add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water to make a syrup. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the orange peel and gently simmer for 25-30 minutes until it is see-through. Turn off the pan and let the orange peel cool in the syrup.

Once the peel is cool to touch, take a slotted spoon and transfer the orange peel to a rack. Making candied fruit can be messy so set everything up over a parchment paper-coated pan to catch the frequent drips of syrup. Then when clean-up time arrives, you can carry the sodden papers easily to the garbage.

First, though, the orange peels should sit there for an hour. When they no longer drip, set up another tray, add a ½ cup sugar on it and you can begin the final stages of creating candied orange peels.

Put the orange peel in the sugar a few pieces at a time and roll each one until it is coated. Warning: this stage will be very sticky so prepare your final drying racks with parchment paper underneath (this time to catch any extra sugar) beforehand and keep them close. 

Once all strips are sugared, leave them to air dry for a day. When the orange peels are dry and not sticky to the touch, the candied treat is ready for consumption. Keep in mind that the humidity in a room can change the drying time, but you can check every now and then to see how the peels are drying.