Life From Scratch: Candied Orange Peels

Words are unbelievably powerful.
~so are pictures, but that's another post for another time~
They can paint pictures, build bridges but more to the point, they can inspire.
Which is why I love this blogging thing so much.
I am tickled that I can take something mundane from my life and present it in a way that can be beautiful, useful, funny, and inspiring for all of you. I don’t think I will ever get tired of this and I am so thankful and touched by all the encouragement and appreciation you amazing folks show to me.

The last three months have been crazy. I got in a little over my head with college and every other aspects of my life suffered because of it.

The critters, my hubby, the house and myself all got neglected.
Oh yeah, and Life From Scratch. Sorry guys.

I’m on spring break right now and plan on making the most of it. There will be soap made, gardening done, animal chores finished, massive cleaning projects and blog posts!

I’m planning on making next quarter more manageable and hope that will mean a little more time for writing. Regardless of if I do get to post more often in the coming months you should all follow on Facebook and Pinterest!

Please, pretty please!

I share thought provoking information and daily life tidbit from our ~~boring~~ fascinating life.
Bahahah, I’m so funny!

Honestly though, I just putter along and post random stuff I like and gush about things that inspire and make me happy.
Another exciting thing, my husband now has an Etsy shop and Facebook page for his knife and tool business! There's a pretty little (wickedly sharp) wood handled knife you will see throughout this post, he made that knife!
He really is great at what he does and he is so creative I promise he could make just about anything you could possibly want.

Alright, enough blabbering- This post is really about candying orange peels! All that talk about “mundane” and here I am candying orange peels, not exactly “mundane” if you ask.

Anyhow-

You will need:

4 cups sugar

4 cups water
3 cups orange peels ( I used peels from about 5 oranges)
more water for blanching
more sugar for coating

Peel your oranges in whatever way makes you happy. I decided to punish myself and cut them in spirals, pretty but not smart or fun. Doing narrow strips would have been a whole lot easier in the long run.

Cover your peels in water and bring to a simmer, poor the water off, rinse well and taste the peels. If they are still too bitter for you to tolerate cover them with water and simmer again, repeat until they taste alright to you.

Now that the peels are blanched it will be much easier to remove the white pith. You can do this before blanching but it seemed a whole lot harder to me. This part actually isn’t very bitter but the texture is not great when candied. Use a knife to scrape it from the peel.

There will be some casualties, no worries they all candy and taste just the same.

Let your peels hang out on a towel so they can dry out some while you are de-pithing.

While that's going on start your syrup.

Add the 4 cups of water and sugar to a sauce pan at least twice their volume. Just so you know, This is more syrup than you actually need. I used the left over syrup to make marshmallows but you can also just do twice as many peels or cut the recipe down.

Cook the syrup until all the sugar is dissolved, bring to a boil reduce by a 1/3 and bring back down to simmering.

Then press your orange peels out between a folded towel (or two if need be) to get as much water out as possible.
Add your orange peels and simmer until the peels become translucent, most recipes you will find say 45 minutes. Don’t stir, I’ve read it can make the syrup crystallize but I haven't had to deal with that yet, instead swirl the pan.

Once your peels are translucent fish them out and spread them out on wax or parchment paper covered in sugar, sprinkle more on top and let them cool.

Now, most recipes you find will tell you to just let them cool fully and store them in an air tight container.

Fail. Fail. Fail.

Maybe they eat their orange peels faster than I do, I don’t know. But three-fourths of ours molded before we got a chance to eat them.

Yeah, molded, it was tragic.

So, maybe it’s just me but I want something that takes this much work to be a way to preserve a tasty treat.

Never fear, I came up with a solution.

Food dehydrator to the rescue!

The peels molded because they still had too much water in them, something that is so easily remedied by just a few hours in the dehydrator. Use your highest setting and check them frequently.

If you don’t have a dehydrator you should be able to do it in your oven. You will need to crack the door and set your oven at 200f or whatever your lowest setting is. You will probably need to stir and flip them, just keep a close eye on them so they don’t overheat o burn.

Now, once they are dry to your liking and fully cool you can store them in an air tight container. I don’t know what people do with candied orange peels, I just eat them.

Enjoy!