Candied Citrus Slices

As I mentioned, on my trip to San Francisco I was lucky enough to get to wander through the Saturday morning farmers market at the Ferry Building. I bought myself plenty of souvenirs, including raw olives (I'll post about them once the brining process is done) and a huge bag of Meyer lemons.

Of course, when I got home, that left me with a giant bag of lemons and not many ideas of what to do with them. I've had worse problems before ;) With a little internet scouring and a snow day, I managed to make my way through most of the lemons.

I've done candied citrus peel before. It's tasty and makes a great gift. But I wanted to try something a little different this time, so I opted to try candying whole slices of fruit (I also had a few blood oranges kicking around, so I candied them as well). The key here is to get super-thin slices, as thin as you can make them while still keeping the slices whole. It's also important to keep an eye out for seeds - take them out as soon as you see them, as they can make slicing a little more difficult.

Note: If you're using different types of citrus, candy the lighter colored ones first. Here, I cooked the lemons first, then the blood oranges. The oranges turned the syrup a beautiful deep ruby color (which I saved for drink mixing), but it would have stained the lemons if I had reversed their cooking order.

These are delicious for snacking, but they also make gorgeous garnishes on desserts and drinks. I'm keeping them wrapped in parchment paper in the fridge, ready for use.


Candied Citrus Slices
3 lemons (or Meyer lemons)
3 small oranges (or blood oranges)
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water

Cut citrus into very thin slices, discarding the ends that are all pulpy white. Set aside.

In a large frying pan, combine sugar and water over medium high heat. (If your pan is too small, use 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water). Once sugar has dissolved, bring to a boil for about one minute. Reduce heat to medium low, or a gentle simmer, and add lemon slices in a single layer. Cook for 30-40 minutes, or until the rinds begin to turn translucent. Remove slices from the pan with a slotted spoon and arrange on parchment paper to cool. Repeat process with orange slices.

Once citrus has cooled, roll each slice lightly in sugar and put back on the parchment to dry for a little while. Store wrapped in parchment paper in an airtight container.