Candied Orange Peel

I made candied orange peel for the first time a couple of days ago, and brought it to our game night to share it with friends and get opinions on how it came out.  I got good feedback, even though  I definitely cut the strips too small, as they shrunk during cooking and ended up teeny-tiny. 

It turns out that making candied orange peel is not very difficult, just very time-consuming.  There are several steps.  After doing a little research, I found that recipes for candied peel vary widely, including some recipes that take a whole day.  I am inexperienced in this sort of thing, but this is the general outline of what I did, and luckily, it worked for me. 

Candied Orange Peel
1.  Cut the peel from the orange(s), being careful to remove as much of the white pith as possible.  Cut the peel into strips.
2.  Bring a small pot of water to a boil.  Add the orange peel and boil for five minutes.  Drain the peel, discarding the water, and rinse the peel with cool water.  Refill the pot with fresh water and again bring to a boil.  Add the peels to the new boiling water and again boil for five minutes, drain, and rinse. 
3.  Boil, drain, and rinse the peels as many times as needed, using fresh water each time, until they are a little less soft than the desired texture, 10 to 20 minutes total boiling time.
4.  For every two oranges' worth of peels, measure a third cup water and a half cup sugar.  Bring the sugar and water to a gentle simmer in the small pot, making sure it all dissolves.  Add the peels and simmer about 10 to 15 minutes.
5.  Be very careful - the hot sugar solution will burn skin.  With tongs or spider ladle, carefully transfer peels to a bowl of regular granulated sugar, tossing to coat each peel; transfer to wax paper or silicone mat.  Be careful - boiling sugar is dangerous and will burn skin quickly!
6.  Allow peels to cool.  Dip in chocolate if desired.  Keep in a closed containter.

I've been slowly venturing into the realm of sugar work, and this is one thing I have been wanting to try my hand at for a while now.  I rarely have oranges around the house because I have to be so careful about how much potassium I take in (because of my kidney disease), so it took me a while to finally get around to try actually making candied orange peel.  I'm glad I finally did.  Now that this was successful, I may try similar things -- candied ginger comes to mind.  And next time, my candied orange peel will be a normal size, not the strangely tiny bits I ended up with this time.  Live and learn.

Happy eating!