Candied fruits are also called crystallized fruits. To prepare candied fruits, entire fruit or its pieces are put in warmed sugar syrup which absorbs the fruit water and preserves it. Duration of preservation process depends on the size and type of fruit. It can vary from few days to few months. Because of this procedure, fruit can hold its quality for almost a year.

The procedure of soaking the fruits in sugar syrup makes the fruits completely saturated with sugar. It creates an unfavorable osmotic pressure which prevents the growth of spoilage microorganisms. Most common candied fruits are cherries, dates, pineapple and ginger. The essential candied peels are citron, orange and lemon peel.

Candied fruits’ recipe has different formulas in different regions. However the main rule is to boil the fruit, soak it into the sugar syrup for various weeks, and after that get dry any residual water.

How to Prepare Candied Fruits?

To prepare candied fruits, you will require a pan for Sugar Syrup and one for boiling the fruits. We selected the candied orange peels which we will later use for Chocolate-Dipped Orange Biscuits. To start with, remove the top and base of the oranges.

Set the orange on a cutting surface and cut off its peel with a sharp knife. Do not cut the orange flesh. It is alright to keep the white part with the skin: the bitterness neutralizes with boiling, and it becomes translucent and sweet during the candying procedure.

You can grate the orange peel or even chop it and cut it into strips. Larger peels, for example, grapefruit, should be cut into thin strips for quicker cooking.

Take some cool and fresh water and soak peels into it. Bring it to a boil and quickly drain the water. Repeat this process and boil the peels once again into the fresh water. For oranges or other citrus fruits, for example, lemons, you just need one to three boiling. For grapefruit, you may require seven or eight. However, cherries and pineapples can go directly into the sugar syrup.

Taste the boiled peel. If it is delicate then transfer it into the warm sugar syrup. Simmer the sugar syrup on low heat for 15 – 30 minutes. The cooking time depends on the size of fruit slices. Try to cook it on low heat until the orange skins become translucent and the peel tastes sweet and delicate.

Now turn off the heat and keep it aside to cool down. You can use these glazed orange peels in different recipes. Or store them into the refrigerator for months with its sugar syrup. You can also drain the syrup and cover it with sugar. Sugar coated orange skins dry out rapidly. In this case, you can eat them in one or two days. To keep them fresh for a long time, dunk the drained pieces of peel into the chocolate.