Candied Lemon Peel!

Candied citrus peel is something I've wanted to make for sooo long, but just never got around to.  It's so dainty & seems like it'd be a cute gift to give to someone for the holidays---especially orange peel dipped halfway in dark chocolate. :)

I recently checked out "Vegan Soul Kitchen" from my local library & noticed that it had a recipe for candied orange peel in there, but the recipe said you could substitute any citrus fruit.  The reason I wanted to make lemon peel, specifically, is for this week's Game of Thrones treat...I'll make a post for that in the next few days!





Here's my adaptation on Bryant Terry's recipe:


Candied Lemon Peel

• 6 organic lemons, washed
• 1 3/4 cups organic sugar, divided

Use a vegetable peeler to peel the lemon zest from the lemons.  I got about 5-7 thick strips, lengthwise, from each lemon (save the lemons for another project...maybe lemonade!).  Put the strips in a saucepan & cover them with a couple inches of water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 hour, until they're tender.  Drain & rinse them, then use a spoon to gently scrape any pith (this used to be the white, foamy part within the lemon) from the peels.  Cut the peels into 1/4-inch strips---no need for perfection here.  

Grab that saucepan again, but this time you'll add a cup of water, along with 3/4 cup sugar.  Bring it to a boil, add the peels, & simmer for about an hour, or until most of the sugar syrup has been absorbed.  

Drain the candied peels in a fine sieve, then roll them in the remaining 1 cup of sugar.  This part is kind of time consuming, but you can meditate or something while you work.*** 

***I recommend using the rad dredging technique where you use one hand for the wet & one hand for the dry, similar to when you bread stuff.  I used my right hand to pull out a gooey, drained strip & threw it into the sugar, then used my left to sprinkle sugar over the top, then tossed it around a little, before putting it on a rack to dry overnight.  Repeat this a million or so times, until you've rolled all your fancy strips.  They're so glittery!