Candied Mandarin Peel 糖渍柑皮

I have came across recipes on preserving the mandarin orange peel in candied form. Not until yesterday, I saw a Baking Corner's member posting on candied mandarin orange peels,  that I decided to gave it a try. After googling a few recipes to understand the basic steps, I went ahead to try on one mandarin orange rind. My hard work paid off by having a small handful of candied mandarin orange peels covered with tiny sugar grains that twinkle in the light :)

Ingredients

1 Mandarin orange rind, freshly peeled

2 tbsp fine sugar

1 tbsp water

4 tbsp fine sugar for coating

Directions

1. Wash the mandarin orange with fruit wash to remove any chemical residue on the rind before peeling it.

2. Boil the rind in the water for about 10 minutes. Drain away the water.

Repeat this process with fresh lot of water for another round.

3. Use a knife to scrap away the white portion underneath the orange rind. This can be easily done especially the rind has softened after boiling.

4. Cut the rind into thin slices. Set aside.

5. Add 2 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of water to a heat resistant ware. Swirl the ware to breifly combine the water and the sugar. Do not stir. As long as the sugar submerge under water will do.

6. Cover the ware opening partially and heat over low temperature. Swirl the ware occassionally to ensure no over heating at the base.

When the mixture boils and start to thicken, add in the cut orange peels. Let them boil under low heat for about 3 to 5 minutes.

7. Pick the peels up and drop them over some fine sugar. Gently move the peels around to coat.

8. Transfer to a piece of parchment paper to cool down.

You may want to speed up the drying up process by keeping the orange stripes in an oven toaster at 95 to 100 degree Celsius for about 1 hour. Leave in the toaster to cool down completely.