Candied Fruit (Fruit confits)

Candying fruit is one of the oldest techniques used to preserve fruits to make them available during the winter months when fresh fruit is unavailable. It is still a speciality of southwestern France where you can find stands offering every shape and size of beautifully preserved fruits.

You can make your own candied fruit. There are two recipes below. The first is the easier and quicker of the two. In this recipe, you simmer the fruit is a sugar syrup and then lay the pieces out to dry. In the second recipe, which follows the technique used by those make fruit confit professionally (see Fruit Confits), fruits are first blanched, then soaked in a sugar syrup to which sugar is continually added to increase the concentration of the syrup. The fruit must be fully infused with sugar, to its core; whole fruit, such as oranges or clementines, take considerably longer than smaller fruits or slices to candy. This process can take two weeks or more; then the fruits are dried.

Candied Orange Slices

Candied Orange Slices can be used to decorate cakes and other desserts, or in holiday sweets that called for candied citron. The recipe can be used, of course, with lemons, limes and grapefruit.

1 orange
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup granulated white sugar

Take an orange, slice it in half thru the ends (lengthwise) and lay the cut side down. Then take a very sharp knife and cut 1/4" slices. Set these aside.

In a large, heavy skillet, bring 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar to a boil… then add the orange slices.

Let it boil for about 5-10 minutes, turning once or twice, then reduce the heat to medium and let it continue cooking for about 30 minutes turning occasionally.

The liquid will thicken and become a syrup. Reduce the heat until the oranges are at a low simmer… continue cooking and occasionally turning until the syrup is thick and the oranges are translucent but still in tact.

Remove from heat but let the orange slices remain in the pan as they cool for about 10 minutes… then remove to a sheet of wax paper to cool completely.

The syrup remaining in the pan can be saved and used in other dishes… great fresh orange flavor.

Candy Orange Slices

Modified version of procedure for candying fruit by Jean-Pierre Wybauw in Fine Chocolates, p70. Wybauw’s method utilizes a sugar refractometer which measures the concentration of sugar - the following method doesn’t.

Fruit Prep:

• Clean three oranges by scrubbing under warm water.
• Slice into thin rounds. This candying method worked on all thickness of slices I tried up to 1/4 inch thick.
• The slices can be kept as circles, or cut into halves or quarters (hemi-circles and quarter-circles).

Blanching:

• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
• Have a bowl of ice water near by.
• Add the sliced oranges to the boiling water (may need to be done in batches depending on the size of your pot). Scoop from the boiling water when the slices float to the top and place into ice water to cool.
• When cool, drain and remove the slices from the ice water and transfer to a container large enough to hold all of the slices.

Candying:

• Bring to a boil: 1 kg of sugar (about 4.4 cups?) and 600 g of water. This step is to just dissolve the sugar (not to cook the syrup).
• Pour the hot syrup over the orange slices. If the orange slices float, weigh them down to keep them fully submerged. Weighing down method I used the first week: placed a plate on top of the orange slices and a glass jar of water on top of the plate.
• Store the submerged orange slices in a dark cool place, like a cupboard or closet for the duration of the candying. I didn’t refrigerate them.
• Each day increase the sugar content of the orange slice sugar solution. Do this by draining off the sugar solution the slices are submerged in, add 100g (.44 cups?) of sugar, heat the solution to just dissolve the sugar, and pour back over the orange slices.
• Complete this increase-sugar step daily for two weeks.
• Notes
  • I didn’t follow the schedule as written: I skipped a couple days of the increase-sugar schedule, and just resumed the increase-sugar step when I was able to. My impression is that this recipe is not very picky about increasing the sugar each day. I think the variable of time is important though- don’t try to shorten the duration of this recipe.
  • Storage: the orange slices may be stored in the sugar solution indefinitely. No need to refrigerate, they can be stored in a cool dark place, like a cupboard.

Drying and dipping
The orange slices are removed from the sugar solution. Finishing can take multiple different routes:
arrange on a drying rack out at room temperature till less tacky, 1-2 days then

• roll in sugar (plain, vanilla, or with a touch of citric acid),
• or dip in chocolate (white, dark or milk- tempered holds up best).
• or you can do both- like in the picture: dip 3/4 of the orange slice in chocolate and sugar the exposed portion.

Storage of finished candies
In an air tight container is best to keep out humidity. I gifted these in glass canning jars or crunchy cellophane bags. The survivors of my nibbling suggest that these candies hold up well: at least a month, probably more.

Variations
The subject of your candying is the first variation that leaps to my mind. Keeping your choices in the citrus family is easy:

• lime
• lemon
• grapefruit
• buddah’s hand

Finding other fruits and vegetables for this process would be a great experiment too. I don’t know what the parameters for likely subjects are. But here’s some ideas:

• persimmon
• ginger
• pineapple
• apricot
• peach
• tomato
• cucumber
• cherries
• garlic clove
• jalapeno
• onion ring
• carrot
• chestnut

A long process- yes. But the bounty if offers will reward you and your friends over and over.