Candied Citrus Peel

At my local farmer's market I cam upon a most explosively good discovery.  Yellow grapefruits.  I was specifically surprised because the fruit stand where they came from is not particularly good.  Their fruit is average at best.

But these fantastic little jewels were pure gold.  From their butter-yellow flesh to their lemony rind.  Juicy and sweet they were everything that is normally lacking in a grapefruit.

The problem was... I only bought four of them.  And there are just so many ways to extend the life of a grapefruit.

Or are there?

With citrus fruit we talk about using the zest and the juice and sometimes even the pulp, though rarely, but we rarely use the rind.  The white pith is bitter and tough, but surely there is a way to salvage even this.  From earlier experimentation, I found that I could find a purpose for pineapple rind. While devouring the grapefruit flesh I pondered about it then did my usual thing...I googled.

I LOVE google.

And in fact many before me had thought of the same thing.  If you can candy orange rind, why not grapefruit?

One obvious answer is that grapefruit is, in and of itself, somewhat bitter.  Add to that, the bitter pith and what you might get is something entirely inedible.  No matter how much sugar you put on it.  But again, others had done most of the work of this before me and every single recipe I examined started with boiling the sliced up rind, draining and boiling again.  Anywhere from 3-5 times.  Some recipes entirely bypassed the draining and instead boiled the rind for 20-40 minutes depending on the recipe.  But after tasting the water from the first boil, I was convinced that draining and boiling was the way to go.  The water quickly took on a pale yellow color and a distinct bitterness and filled the kitchen with the scent of grapefruit.

The next part of every recipe was, by necessity, the process of infusing the rind with sugar.  But even here everyone seemed to disagree exactly on how to do it.  Some said to just cover the rind in sugar and let the moisture of the rind melt the sugar, while others chose to use a simple syrup.  And while I had no doubt that the wet, boiled peel would melt the sugar I was not certain that it would do so before some of it would start to burn (even at a low heat) and more to the point I did not have the ridiculous amount of sugar that those kinds of recipes called for.  So simple syrup it was.

Now normally I prefer to give credit where credit is due, but I could find no single recipe that seemed to make sense to me.  They were more methods than recipes anyway.  Almost all of them lacked even a cooking time.  Just a vague reference to transparency or translucency.  So I was left to more or less figure things out on my own.  Fortunately it wasn't that hard and, as a bonus, almost fool proof.

Candied Citrus Peel

4 grapefruit rinds (or equivalent in citrus fruit of your choice)
5.5 cups sugar (divided use)
2 cups water
Melted chocolate (optional)
Flavoring (optional)

Scrape all of the flesh and membranes from the fruit rind.  Make sure to leave the pith intact.  Slice the rind into half inch slices and place into a pan large enough to hold it plus an inch of water.  Cover with clean water.  Bring water to a boil and boil for a minute or two then drain.  Repeat a total of five times until the rinds are very tender.  Leave in a colander to drain well.

While the peel is draining, mix together four cups of sugar and the 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and continue to heat until the mixture is clear.  If you wish, you can drop flavorings such as cinnamon, cardamom, or vanilla into the sugar syrup to flavor the final product.  Using several layers of paper towels or a kitchen towel, press the rinds to extract as much water as is easily possible without smashing them.  Once the syrup is clear, drop in the drained peel.  Make sure that there is enough syrup to allow all of the rinds to be in contact with it.  If there isn't make a half batch of syrup in another pot and ladle over the top.

Bring syrup and rind to a boil and reduce heat to very low.  Cover and allow to simmer until the rinds become translucent and jewel like (almost like colored glass).  Stir occasionally.  This takes about an hour.

Remove the rinds to baking sheets lined with parchment and allow to dry over night.  Take your reserve cup and a half of sugar and put in your food processor, whirring it until it is the consistency of fine sand.  This step is not strictly necessary but creates a better finished product.  Take the slightly tacky pieces of candied rind and toss them in the sugar until thoroughly covered.  Shake off gently and return to the cookie sheets.  Allow to dry for a further 2-4 hours before placing in an airtight container for storage.

Optionally instead of covering the rinds in sugar you can dip them in chocolate and allow to harden.

The results?

I got enough rinds from four grapefruits to fill this jar three times over.

As for the taste?  Pleasantly bitter with the distinct tang of grapefruit.  The sugar crystallizes onto the moist surface creating a slightly crunchy crust that yields to soft, sugar infused pith with just a touch of zesty chew.  A great snack!  This would also be fantastic is a quick bread or muffin.  Surprisingly this is neither too sweet nor too bitter, instead striking a surprising balance between the two extremes.

And the recipe has a HUGE yield!  From the four grapefruit rinds I got four cookie sheets full of gorgeous translucent rind and it made the kitchen smell simply divine!

Comments

[Kitchen Queen]

I discovered your blog from your DMBLGIT entry, and am so glad I did. I adore grapefruit and I've wondered for years about candying the peel....but I never bothered to try. I will definitely try your recipe! Thanks for publishing it! And your triangular jar is so pretty - where did you get it?

[kitarra]

Awww thank you!

I just hate throwing away usable parts of fruit! This recipe seems to have met with a lot of success with those that have tried it! I hope you enjoy it and post the results!

I am not sure where I got the triangular jar. *bites lip* I want to say it was part of a gift basket and had pasta in it but I am not certain. We have had it for just ever!

It looks like we have a lot of the same tastes in food bloggers! And I LOOOVE that recipe for almond puffs! It looks wonderful!

[Kitchen Queen]

It's a rainy Saturday and I have enough grapefruit rinds to finally do this recipe! I'll let you know how it goes. I'm thinking about doing half of them with a clove or two for extra flavoring.

The almond puff loaves are very good. Next time I'm going to use blueberry preserves on one. Maybe I have a jar of the blueberry-key lime preserves left that I made a couple of years ago.....

[Kitarra]

Oh man! You make me want to start preserving! The flavor combinations that people come up with. *drools*

And I would be thrilled to find out how the rinds turned out! This seems like a no fail recipe thus far! So I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will turn out well for you too!

[polina]

Looks very delicious! I can't help cooking it on my own! By the way, hoped to find it in my favorite cookery book http://file.sh/huge+collection+of+recipies+torrent.html , but failed to find. It must be your original recipe, right?