Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Candied Citrus Peel

Enjoy!

Betsy

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 22:36:12 -0400
From: Nicole Okun (Nicole_Okun@MINDLINK.BC.CA)

Candied Citrus Peel recipe

This recipe was originally posted somewhere on Usenet around last Christmas
by Kathy Lankford (kath@col.hp.com), who couldn't remember where it came
from. I made some for Christmas gifts and it was most appreciated by all.
It's a little time consuming, but every once in a while you deserve to
treat yourself by devoting some of your precious "spare" time to the art of
making food this good.

Chocolate-dipped Candied Citrus Peel

Halve and remove fruit from 3 grapefruits and 3 oranges.

Cut peel into uniform 1/2" strips. Pare off white pith. Put in a saucepan
with water enough to cover. Boil 5 minutes, drain and repeat (this
debitters the peels). Add 2 cups sugar. Cook until peels are transparent
and sugar is absorbed (about 45 minutes), watching to avoid scorching.

When the peel is transparent (and it will seem like it never will get to
that stage, but be patient), most of the liquid will have been absorbed or
boiled off. I used tongs to grab the pieces of peel and tossed them onto
the cookie sheet with the sugar. I would think that you could put the
sugar in a bag and put the peel in there, and do a "shake 'n bake" type
thing, too. There will be a bit of liquid remaining in the pot -- rinse it
out pretty quickly, because it just gets stickier as it cools.

Spread a cookie sheet with 2-1/2 cups sugar. Roll the peels in sugar.
BTW, to "roll" the peels in the sugar on the cookie sheet, I used a couple
of forks. I love to cook and I use my hands a lot to stir and mix things
(even to stir stuff in a hot frying pan!) but I HATE having sticky fingers
and would rather have extra utensils to clean.

Lay strips skin-side up on a wire rack. Put waxed paper over them. Let rest 2 - 3 days.

Melt 3 oz semisweet chocolate in a double boiler.

Dip ends of peels in chocolate. Let cool on rack. Store in an airtight
box with layers of waxed paper in between.

PS - When I made this for Christmas, I also dipped various dried fruits and
whole, skinned almonds in chocolate to go along with the candied peel.
Quick, easy, and impressed the heck out of everyone!