Candying fruit is the process of infusing fruits in a sugar syrup. This preserves them and is used in recipes and as decoration in pastries
About this recipe
Candying fruits is an old tradition that previous generations used to eat sweet fruit in winter season
Not surprisingly, lots of holiday desserts call for candied fruits
Nowadays, we also use candied fruit for decorating desserts. They bring a richness and nice colors to pastries
In the states, we find candied fruits easily ('holiday fruit'), however:
● Candied fruit is not easy to find in stores all year around
● They are sold in little cubes, which may not be the shape you need
● They always use the same variety like lemons, oranges, cherries, with little diversity
● I stumbled on recipes that called for "candied ginger"... Unless you make it yourself, this one is difficult to find in stores
Learning to make your own candied fruit allows you to customize the type of fruit and their shape, all year around !
Here's the recipe video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg_ePz8LRyU
About quantities
● Note that I didn't mention final weigh, as fruit like lemons have significantly different weight (small/large lemons)
● As a rule of thumb, for 4 Meyer Lemons, weighing 480 g (1 lbs 1 oz ), I will get 120 g (¼ lbs ) of candied fruit
A few notes...
A few notes to succeed this recipe:
● You do need to blanch the fruit before cooking in syrup. For fruit that is very sweet like cherries, blanch only once. For lemons and oranges, 3 times, and for bitter fruit like Grapefruit, you will need to blanch 7 times
● When you blanch, make sure to start with cold water, not warm or hot
I keep my candied fruit in a airtight container in the fridge
● Storing in syrup : Either store the fruit immersed in its syrup : the fruit will tenderize further, and will become very soft.
● Storing dried : For decoration, you need drier fruit. To obtain this, place the candied fruit on a rack after cooking, let drain, and sprinkle sugar
That's it!