See these huge piles of orange peels? They’re left over from preparing Ambrosia for a function I catered. I carefully wrapped them in Saran Wrap & refrigerated them. Today they are going to become candied orange peel!
Orange peels leftover from making ambrosia
First I had a small crisis. I couldn’t locate my Fannie Farmer Cookbook! This is THE book to go to for preserving foods as far as I’m concerned. Did a google search & couldn’t locate the recipe. Didn’t really want to use another one because I’ve used this recipe before & been very pleased with the results. However I did locate it online. It contains the entire cookbook! Unfortunately, it does not have a search capability. Took me quite a while to find my recipe but it’s in there.
Pot with orange peels & cold water. Next step is to gently boil them.
Took half of the orange peels & placed them in a 4 quart heavy pot. Added cold water to the pot until the orange peels were covered. Slowly brought the water & peels mixture to a boil. Gently simmered the peels until they are soft. Drained them & allowed the peels to cool enough to be able to handle them.
The orange peels have been drained. They are now cooling.
The next step was taking a knife & removing the white portion of the skin. While working on that, I put 2 cups of sugar & 1 cup of water into a medium saucepan. After the sugar dissolved, I continued cooking the syrup until it made threads when dropped in a cup of water. In the meantime, the orange peels were cut into strips. Once the syrup was the proper thickness, the orange peel strips were added to the saucepan. They cooked at a gentle boil for 5 minutes.
Orange peel that has been cleaned & cut into strips. It is now ready to be cooked in the syrup.
Orange strips simmering in syrup.
I added a cup of sugar to a bowl. Using a slotted spoon, I removed the orange peels from the pot & allowed them to drain. They were then put in the sugar & tossed until covered. Removed the orange strips from the bowl of sugar & placed them on a pie pan to dry. In the morning, I will bag them. They will then be available whenever I need candied orange peel. The remaining syrup was placed to the side to cool. Later, I will use it to sweeten a batch of tea. That will give the tea a pleasant taste of orange.
Strips of orange peel being tossed in sugar.
Now your orange peel is finished. Let it dry & then bag it.
