Candied orange peel- thoughts of home

When I was growing up in Escanaba, MI, my all time favorite treat was chocolate covered candied orange peels and I would get them here: http://saykllys.com/ And since I just checked out their website, I am sad to report they are no longer being offered, but hopefully this is just an on line situation and all the people of Upper Michigan can still get them in their local store, and we won't have some sort of candied orange peels riots.

In case you don't live in Michigan next to a Sayklly's store, here is a recipe to make them yourself:

Candied Orange Peel
4-5 oranges, lemons, limes or grapefruits, but don't mix them, do each batch separately please
1 cup water
1 cup sugar plus more for sugaring the peels later

Take a vegetable peeler and carefully peel all the yummy rind off the fruit being careful not to go too deep and start taking off the pith as well.  Once the fruit is peeled, julienne into small strips and place into a small pan of boiling water, simmer for 10 minutes.

Julienned orange rind in first water bath

After 10 minutes in the simmered water, drain the peels and repeat for another 10 minutes in more simmering water.  The purpose of this blanching is to take the bitterness out of the peel.  Some recipes I have read can have you doing this up to 4 times, it's all up to personal taste.

Once you have finished boiling the peels a second time, combine the sugar and water in a small pan and simmer until all the sugar is dissolved, once dissolved, add the blanched peels.

You want to simmer the peels in the sugar syrup until the peel start to look translucent.  Once translucent, turn the heat off and let the peels sit in the sugar syrup for 4-6 hours.  When you are ready to take them out of the pan, simply turn the heat on low until the mixture is syrupy again and not one big clump.  Drain and roll in sugar, let dry on wax paper overnight.  Enjoy!

As for the choclate part of this recipe, dip 'em, don't dip 'em they are amazing either way.

-Jenny