Candied orange peel

When oranges are in season, it’s worth making use of their peels as well. Candied orange peel is an easy way to preserve their fresh citrus flavor, so you can enjoy it all year round—on its own, in desserts, or as a refined baking ingredient.

Ingredients

150 g peel of organic oranges (approx. 1 kg oranges)
150 g sugar
150 g water
optional 200g dark chocolate

Method

Wash and dry the oranges, cut off the caps, cut the peel lengthwise into 6 parts for each orange and gently pull off the peel.
Cut all the peels into strips about 1 cm wide.
Put the peel in a glass bowl, cover with water and leave overnight.
Drain the orange peel in a colander.
Transfer the peel to a small pan, pour clean water over them and bring to the boil. With this step, you can reduce the bitterness typical of orange peel. If the oranges are very bitter, you can repeat this step once or twice.
Drain the orange peel. Put them back into the pan with 150 g sugar and 150 g water and cook over a medium heat.
After about ten minutes of cooking, the sugar will have dissolved in the water and a nice sugar syrup will form.
Cook until the syrup has been completely absorbed by the orange peel. Turn off the heat.
Then take the orange peel one by one with tongs and place them, separated from each other, on a baking tray lined with baking paper. They should dry for about 4-6 hours.
The candied orange peel can be eaten as it is, or used as candied fruit.

Tip

You can make the candied orange peel even tastier by covering it in chocolate. You need 200 g dark chocolate (chips) that melts easily. Put a pan with little water on the fire, and hang a glass bowl in it (don’t let it touch the boiling water). Put dark chocolate (chips) into the bowl and let it melt. When it has melted completely, the orange peels into the chocolate for 2/3 (or cover them completely with chocolate – this is a little bit messy). Leave the chocolate orange peel to dry on a piece of baking paper. When the chocolate is solid it is ready to eat. Enjoy!