I had a box of naval oranges – a LOT of oranges. That is a lot of orange peels when everything is said and done. What I did with the oranges will come in the next post. But, I wanted to emphasize that I had a LOT of orange peels. Enough to feel guilty of throwing it all away.
So I candied and dried the suckers. Boy, it was a serious pain in the butt to scrape the peels down to the orange part and all that. I don’t recommend doing this unless you are a patient person with time to kill. It takes a while if you have a lot of orange peels.
CANDIED ORANGE PEELS
3 lg. oranges
3/4 c. water
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
2 3/4 c. sugar
Cut peel from oranges into quarters. Slice with 1/4 inch wide strips. You should have approximately 4 cups. Place peels in a non-aluminum saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to boiling and cook, covered, for 15 minutes. Drain in colander.
Boil water, syrup, and 2 cups sugar, stirring until dissolved. Add peels. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 35-55 minutes until peels are translucent and tender.
Remove peels with slotted spoon to rack. Let drain 5 minutes. Separate peels. Place on dehydrator racks and over. Let sit for 24 hours.
Dry in dehydrator or oven at 130 degrees Fahrenheit until tacky, about 1 hour. Place the remaining 3/4 cup sugar in bowl. Add peels and toss until they are covered with sugar.
Let dry on racks about 2 to 4 hours or until chewy when tested. Store in airtight container for 1 month or bag and freeze for several months.
They were pretty good! I say only pretty good because I slightly over-dried mine. I recommend checking them every hour in the last drying process to make sure that you don’t make the same mistake I did.
So, yeah, if they look like this – they have been over-dried. They should look more like the picture above this. Lesson learned.
