Around the holidays you find many recipes that call for candied fruits. I use them in my Panettone recipe from Artisan Bread in Five, in a chocolate ginger biscotti, a Trinidadian rum cake, for my granny’s maple brown-butter shortbread cookies or just dipped in bittersweet chocolate.
The problem is most of the candied fruit you can find in the stores are flavorless, overly sweet and has a chemical after taste. Not exactly inspiring! Many people forgo the candied fruit altogether in order to avoid these lackluster store-bought products. It is a shame, because making your own is so easy and they are absolutely addicting. I make a huge batch and end up eating half of it right off of the drying rack. I love the the color and taste of the candied grapefruit, but you can use the same technique to make candied orange, lemon, lime or any other citrus fruit.
There are many different ways to candy fruit but I find this one the easiest. I learned this technique when I was at the CIA from Thomas Gumpel. I think Emily Luchetti does a marvelous job of explaining it in her Four-Star Desserts
How to Make Candied Grapefruit
Find the full recipe at the bottom of this post.
Pick beautifully colored fruit and wash it well!
Cut off the skin of the fruit,
then cut it into strips and remove some of the bitter pith. Don’t go crazy, it won’t matter that much in the end and you don’t want the candy to be too thin.
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add the peels. Boil for 5 minutes and strain. Refill the pot with fresh water and bring it to a boil again. Add the peels and boil for another 5 minutes, strain and repeat this 2 more times for a total of 4 pots of boiling fresh water. This process of blanching the peels removes the bitter flavor and is essential to the success of your efforts.
Place your blanched peels in the pot, add the sugar, 1 1/2 cups water and lemon juice.
Cook on medium low heat until all of the peels are translucent, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Drain the citrus peels on a wire rack, with a piece of parchment or cookie sheet under it, to catch the drips. Let sit several hours (overnight) to air-dry.
Toss the candied peels in sugar! They will last at room temperature for a couple of weeks.
Ingredients
- 2 small grapefruits, washed or 3 oranges, lemons or limes
- 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar plus more for coating the candied fruit
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice or 1 tablespoon corn syrup this prevents the sugar from crystallizing as you cook the fruit in the syrup
Instructions
- Pick beautifully colored fruit and wash it well! Cut off the skin of the fruit, then cut it into strips and remove some of the bitter pith. Don’t go crazy, it won’t matter that much in the end and you don’t want the candy to be too thin.
- Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add the peels. Boil for 5 minutes and strain. Refill the pot with fresh water and bring it to a boil again. Add the peels and boil for another 5 minutes, strain and repeat this 2 more times for a total of 4 pots of boiling fresh water. This process of blanching the peels removes the bitter flavor and is essential to the success of your efforts.
- Cook on medium low heat until all of the peels are translucent, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
- Drain the citrus peels on a wire rack, with a piece of parchment or cookie sheet under it, to catch the drips. Let sit several hours (overnight) to air-dry.
- Toss the candied peels in sugar! They will last at room temperature for a couple of weeks.
I came across this on Pinterest, and the poster thought that while they were tasty, there was some bitterness. Reading through the comments on your original post, someone asked for suggestions on what to do with the left over syrup, and you mentioned in in your response, “if it’s not bitter”. My questions then are, not having made or really eaten candied citrus rinds before, is it natural for them to have some bitterness? Is this bitterness inherent in only the grapefruit? What would adding salt to this process do, given that salt blocks the bitterness and allows grapefruit’s natural sweetness to come through, or balsamic vinegar?
Hi Zoe,
Can you please post a recipe for a good Christmas fruit cake – the Trinidadian rum cake would be nice too 🙂
This recipe is wonderful thank you for sharing! Also my house smell wonderful land I have kept the last 2 portions of boiling water with the grapefruit slices to cut my citrus vinaigrette that I am making right now yay! And with the actual grapefruit I have made sorbet.
I made them and dipped half of every piece in dark chocolate,delicious!
I’m newly married, and just getting my foot in the door…er, kitchen. So I’m always looking for new things to try. Here I was, throwing away all of my citrus peels. What a fantastic recipe! Thank you so much!
I made these yesterday and they came out bitter. I boiled and drained them 4 times, but maybe I did not remove enough of the pith?
The texture was perfect, though. I’ll have to try again.
Hi Margaret,
It sounds like it is the pith, which you may still be able to cut off with a very sharp knife.
Thanks, Zoë
Hi Zoe!
Just made this the other day. House smelt wonderful! I haven’t dipped them in chocolate yet but did try the syrup over Christmas morning waffles. Yum! I think the syrup might be good with club soda or carbonated water for a summertime drink.
Thanks for showing an easy recipe!
Tina
That sounds brilliant TIna! 🙂
Thanks, Zoë
Look out fruitcake here I come. The recipe looks perfect!
Oh yes Leemz,
Dip them in chocolate instead of the sugar, they are amazing!
Enjoy! Zoë
Looking lovely. Can’t wait to give ’em a shot 🙂 but ummm I’m a huge fan of chocolate and orange together. So could be add these candied peels in melted milk chocolate, replacing the white sugar coating?
Oooooooooooooooh! I was goolge searching for good grapefruit images, and I came across your candied grapefruit peel page… I’d just eaten 2, and had the peels almost completely intact, so now I’m trying it! (I guess I can quit GRRRRRRRRRR-ing at my camera being 120 miles away just now, and appreciate the serendipity!) So far they’re delicious! THANK YOU! 🙂
Oh yum. That looks amazing. You’re really making me want to do a career shift and go to the CIA.
My stove takes a while to boil water. To speed things up, I brought a big pot to a boil, with enough water for the four rounds plus the final sugar syrup.
Thanks for posting the recipe. Like so many of your recipes I can’t wait until it’s ready to eat!
Very beautiful recipe.I always want to make these things.Thank you.
These look so fun! As soon as everyone I know falls off the wagon post New Years I’ll be making these to share.