Candied orange peel

My friend recently gave me some tangelos from his tree (yea for living in California with free and completely pesticide free citrus!!) Anyways, I decided to make some candied orange peel since (a) I've been wanting to try this forever and (2) no chemicals on the peel.

Here's the final product:

For a step by step process (complete with photos)...

Wish I remembered to take a pic of the tangelos before I sliced them :(

1. Peel the citrus

2. Delicious leftover fruit. (Its ironic that in this case the fruit is actually the "leftover" part).

3. As you can see, the pith (white part) is pretty thick on my tangelo skins.

4. Its fine to leave the pith on, but I wanted to trim it off a bit to reduce the bitterness. Can you see the difference?

5. The pith is the pits.

6. Peeled peels. :)

7. OK, time to cut the peels into 1/4" slices.

8. Cover with cold water and boil the peels. I followed the suggestion and repeated this process two more times (for a total of 3 boiling sessions). The water smelled heavenly- I felt bad pouring it down the drain.

9. Post-boiling. Waiting for their sugar bath...

10. Getting the sugar ready. Whisking it into water.

11. Boiling the sugar. Almost there!

12. Orange peels in the hot sugar water.

13. About half-way there.

14. All done!! (I removed a few at this point) You can really see the difference and how translucent they become.

15. Pour...some...sugar on them! I didn't toss them with too much sugar b/c I don't want them too sweet. Just a little sprinkling. They were pretty sticky coming out of the sugar water so they'd probably take much more sugar.

16. One last picture! There's obviously still some pith on them but they aren't bitter in the least.
I'm super happy with how they turned out. Chewy, sweet, orangy goodness. Now I just gotta dip them in chocolate and my life is complete! Or make Grand Marnier truffles. OMG they look amazing (and I just happen to have some leftover cream...)

Buen provecho,
Jacqueline

Candied Orange
Recipe from food network. I only made half a batch- which is still quite a bit of orange peel.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_24637,00.html

Prep Time: 25 min
Inactive Prep Time: 4 hr 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 13 min

Yield: about 2 cups peel

Ingredients

* 6 thick-skinned Valencia or navel oranges
* 4 1/2 cups sugar, plus extra for rolling
* 1 1/2 cups water

Directions

1. Cut tops and bottoms off of the orange and score the orange into quarters, cutting down only into the peel and not into the fruit. 
2. Peel the skin and pith of the orange in large pieces, use the orange for another recipe. Cut the peel into strips about 1/4-inch wide. 
3. Put the orange peel in a large saucepan with cold water to cover, bring to a boil over high heat. Then pour off the water. Repeat 1 or 2 more times depending up how assertive you want the orange peels to be. (Test kitchen liked the texture of a 3 time blanch best, it also mellowed the bitterness. But it is a matter of preference.) Remove the orange peels from the pan.
4. Whisk the sugar with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8 to 9 minutes. (If you took the sugar's temperature with a candy thermometer it would be at the soft thread stage, 230 to 234 degrees F.) 
5. Add the peels and simmer gently, reducing heat to retain a simmer. 
6. Cook until the peels get translucent, about 45 minutes. Resist the urge to stir the peels or you may introduce sugar crystals into the syrup. If necessary, swirl the pan to move the peels around. Drain the peels, (save the syrup for ice tea.) 
7. Roll the peels in sugar and dry on a rack, for 4 to 5 hours. Return to the sugar to store.