Candied Citrus Peel
As you prepare your Christmas Plum Pudding, it's easy to buy those horrid containers of "candied peel" and "fruitcake mix" at the store. But those things are usually sold only around the Christmas holiday, and you're out of luck if you want to make a spiced fruitcake or pudding at any other time of the year. (For instance, the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha also includes the consumption of sweet cakes as part of the celebration.) Also – and more important – do you really want to include those big hunks of high fructose corn syrup-treated, gelatinized fruit in your own pudding?
Candied citrus is easy to prepare, but can take about an hour to make because it's necessary to simmer your fruit peels at least twice, in order to remove the bitterness and only have the sweet fruit flavor. The end result is worth it: it's a sweet candy that can easily be eaten on its own, as well as used as an ingredient in traditional fruitcake.
Tools needed: A decent vegetable peeler to peel your fruit. Saucepan for boiling the sugar syrup. Also, you need a colander to drain the boiling water, plus a cooling rack for the finished candy.
I've learned it's important to use a decent quality peeler to peel your oranges, lemons, and other fruit (if any). The crucial part is to ensure there is as little pith -- the white underside of the peel -- as possible on your peels, because this is what causes the bitter flavor. It may be necessary to scrape your peels with the edge of a knife to remove extra pith. Having a decent quality peeler should remove nearly all of the pith in the first place when you peel the fruit.
After removing the extra pith, use a knife and cut the peels into thin strips.
Place the peels into a sauce pan and add 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil and boil for 15 minutes. Then, drain the saucepan into a colander, add the boiled peels, and add another three cups of water. Bring to a boil a second time and boil for another 15 minutes. Boiling the peels twice is a necessary step. Drain the saucepan into the colander a second time.
Into the same saucepan, measure 4 cups water and 4 cups of sugar. Mix together and dissolve the sugar in the water.
Add the boiled citrus peels to the sugar water, and bring to a boil for a third time. This time, boiling the peels in sugar water will create a simple syrup. Simmer the peels in the simple syrup for about 25 to 30 minutes.
After about 30 minutes, remove the saucepan from the heat, and use a spider or a fork to take the peels out of the simple syrup. Lay the peels onto a cooling rack.
Reserve the flavored sugar water into a container, and place it into the refrigerator to cool off. You can now use this simple syrup to flavor other dishes -- ice cream, cake, pancakes, and other sweet treats.
After about 30 minutes when the citrus peel has cooled off, but it's still moist, sprinkle granulated sugar over the peels. Place them in the fridge to dry and harden. After this, sprinkle another layer of sugar over the dried peels.
