Orange Peel Candy (How to Make Candied Peels)

❤️Why you will love this recipe

• The candy has a natural sweet and tangy flavor, unlike artificial candies. It's a healthier option compared to store-bought candies.
• This is an easy recipe with basic ingredients. All you need are 3 simple ingredients and these candied peels will be ready in no time!
• There are no special tools required to make the candy, not even a candy thermometer.
• It helps reduce food waste by using orange peels.
• It can be enjoyed as a snack or used in various desserts. You can also pack it into cute jars and turn them into gifts.

What is orange peel and what is orange peel candy?

• Orange peel is basically the skin of an orange fruit. It consists of the orange-colored outer skin as well as the white pith underneath it. Orange peel is also sometimes called orange rind or orange zest, however, the rind and zest refer specifically to the orange layer only and does not include the white bitter pith underneath.
• Other than the orange zest or rind that is widely used in cooking, the peel is often discarded due to the bitter taste of the pith.
• Candied orange peels are a great way to use the peels. This is an old fashioned candy where the orange skin is cut into thin strips and cooked in simple syrup until the strips turn translucent. The cooked citrus peels are then coated in sugar, hence the name candy.
• These candied orange peels are not only great as a snack, they make pretty cake decoration too! Here is my orange cake decorated with lovely candied peels. Pretty right?

📋Ingredients

• Oranges - Orange skin is often exposed to a lot of pesticides. Make sure to wash them thoroughly before using them. Organic oranges would be ideal if you can get them. Also, use fresh oranges. The skin is a lot juicier and plump and when made into candied peels, they are soft to chew.
• Sugar - Sugar is used to make simple syrup as well as to coat the orange peel after cooking them in the syrup. For the syrup, you can use either coarse sugar or granulated sugar. For the sugar coating however, use granulated sugar as it is finer and sticks better to the orange peels.
• Water - this is used firstly blanche the orange peels and then to make the simple syrup. Use filtered water.

🧾Substitution and variations

• To make vanilla flavored orange peels, add the scrapings of half a vanilla bean into the sugar syrup when cooking the peels. Drain and coat in granulated sugar as usual, as indicated in the recipe card.
• The best sugar to use for coating the candied orange peel is granulated sugar (caster sugar). You can also use brown sugar, but make sure it is fine brown sugar.
• To make chocolate dipped orange peels, instead of coating the cooked peels in sugar, you coat them in chocolate. Melt some dark chocolate in a small bowl (either in a double boiler or microwave) and dip each cooked peel strip into the melted chocolate. Lift with a fork and place them on wire rack to let excess chocolate drip off or if there is not much excess chocolate, place the strips on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Let the chocolate set before serving.

Cutting the peel

• To start with, peel your oranges. The easiest way to do this, is to use a sharp knife to cut out the orange skin. Slice off both ends of the orange, and then cut the skin deep enough to get both the orange rind and the white pith in wide strips, but without the orange pulp inside.
• You can also use a vegetable peeler but make sure the skin that is sliced off is not too thin.

• Next is to remove the white pith off the peels. Use a small sharp knife to do this, it is so much easier to remove the pith when your knife is small and sharp.

• And here is how the peels look like after removing the pith. You will see that the white part of the orange skin is still very much visible on the peels and that is perfectly ok. Firstly, it's a bit hard to remove all the white skin completely, and secondly, if you do, your peels will be left with very thin orange part of the peel. When you candy them, there will not be much to munch on.

Slicing the peels

• The next process is the slicing of the peels. Slice them into thin strips. I like mine to be about 1mm to 2mm thick but you can make them thicker or thinner as you wish. If thicker, you will need to cook them slightly longer than the time indicated in my recipe card below.

Boiling the orange peels

• Once the strips of orange peel are ready, fill water in a medium saucepan or pot and bring it to a rolling boil. Add the sliced peels and cook them over low to medium heat for about 10 minutes. Drain the water in a sieve or remove the peels with a slotted spoon after the boiling process.

• This process helps remove the bitterness from the orange peel. Since I have removed as much of the pith as possible from the orange peel, I only boil and drain the peels once.

Cooking the orange peel in sugar syrup

• Next, measure the sugar into a medium-sized pot. Add equal amount of fresh water and heat it up over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves.

• Add the drained fruit peels and reduce the heat to low. Cook them in the syrup for about 10 minutes. This cooking time will depend on the thickness of the sliced peels. Ideally, at the end of the cooking time, the peels should turn translucent. Remember to keep the heat low because we wouldn’t want the syrup to thicken too fast or else it will be hard to drain the thick syrup off later.
• Once the peels are cooked, drain the syrup. Leave the candied peels in the strainer for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the excess orange syrup to drain off before coating them with sugar. Try not to leave them too long in the strainer. If the syrup coating on the peels dries off, it will not able to hold the sugar coating in the next step.

Coating with sugar

• For the sugar coating, fill a small bowl with granulated sugar. Dip the candied orange peels into the sugar. The best way to do this is with a fork. You need not dip the peels one by one, you can do them in batches.

• Remove the sugar-coated candied orange peel to a parchment paper lined tray and let them dry in a cool dry place for about 30 minutes. And they are ready to be enjoyed!

🍽️Serving & storage

• Store the peels in an airtight container.
• These peels can be stored at room temperature for a good 2 to 3 weeks. They last longer when refrigerated.

💡Expert tips

• Once the orange peel is cut, cook and candy them on the same day. I have tried refrigerating the uncooked peels once, for a few days and even though I kept them in a covered container, the peels became dry. When I candied these slightly dried orange peels, they were hard and dry, unlike the batches of candied orange peel made with freshly cut orange skin.
• The syrup for this candied orange peel has a 1 to 1 ratio of sugar and water. Both need to be increased proportionately if you are making a larger batch of candied orange peels.
• When boiling the orange peel in the syrup, take note to use a low heat. This is to ensure the syrup does not thicken up too fast. If it does, you will have a problem straining it out once the orange peels are cooked.
• The drained citrus syrup (once the orange peel strips are candied) can be stored for other uses. This orange-infused sugar syrup can be mixed into drinks for a lovely citrus-flavored drink.
• The best way to dry the peels is to first, strain the syrup out. Leave them in the strainer for about 10 minutes and then dip them in sugar.
• Avoid leaving the candied peels in the strainer for too long. You need to coat these peels in sugar while they are still wet. If the sugar syrup coating dries out, the granulated sugar will not stick to the peels.

💭FAQs