Candied lemon at home: recipe with photo

How to make candied lemon - preparation details

Candied fruits are primarily a dietary substitute for sweets. Despite the concentrated sugar syrup in which they are prepared, candied fruits are considered low-calorie, and, of course, healthy sweets. To make them beautiful and fragrant, springy on the inside and soft on the outside at home, you need to know some subtleties.

The peels are thoroughly washed beforehand, the white film is cut off and cut into small pieces. The thinner the pieces, the better they will be saturated with syrup and the easier it will be to dry.
Food is usually soaked in cold water for at least three days, changing the water at least once, and preferably twice a day.
The quality of candied fruit depends on the consistency of the sugar syrup. For example, a thick and strong syrup will make the fruit too soft, depriving it of an elastic core, which is very valuable in candied fruits. And liquid syrup prevents the fruits from becoming sugary, which prevents candied fruits from being stored for a long time.
Since lemon peels are hard, they are pre-cooked in boiling water. Usually this cycle is repeated 3 times: boiled for 15 minutes and kept in syrup for 12 hours.
Dry the candied fruits by placing the pieces on a sieve for 6 hours so that the syrup can drain. Next, place them on a board and leave them for 3-4 days, turning them over periodically to dry evenly. You can cook the candied slices in the oven. However, the best candied fruits are dried in the fresh air with a slight draft.
Ready candied fruits are sprinkled with vanilla, sugar or powdered sugar.
Store the pieces in a tightly closed glass jar. This is how they retain their freshness and softness for a long time.

Lemon-orange slices

Preparation 1 day 1 hour 20 minutes Cooking 1 day Servings 4 Kcal 568 kcal

Cooking instructions

Wash the citrus fruits thoroughly under running water with a brush, and immerse them whole in cold water. Leave in the refrigerator for a day, replacing the water about 2-3 times.
Take out the fruits, cut them into rings or half rings if they are very large.
Pour water into a saucepan, bring it to a boil, lower the citrus fruits into it for 1 minute, immediately remove it and cool it sharply in water with ice.
Pour sugar into the multicooker bowl, fill it with water, and bring to a boil in the “Steam” or “Soup” mode.
Dip pieces of lemon and orange into the finished boiling syrup, set the “Baking” or “Pilaf” mode, or any other fairly intense mode, lasting more than 40-45 minutes.
Throw the future candied fruits into a colander, wait until the syrup has completely drained from them, which can be used to soak cakes, pastries, add to tea or for other purposes.
Roll the pieces in sugar or powdered sugar, place on parchment and air dry for about a day.

Required Ingredients

In order to prepare excellent candied fruits, choose ripe, elastic lemons with thick skin. For sprinkling, instead of sugar, you can use powdered sugar. But the syrup remaining after cooking can be used to soak biscuits - this will give them a special taste.

Ingredients:

lemons (large) - 10 pieces (400 grams of peels should come out);
sugar – 600 grams (for making syrup);
sugar – 90 grams (for sprinkling candied fruits);
water – 400 milliliters;
citric acid – 8-10 grams.

Leftover syrup

After drying, pour the finished slices into a vase.
They can be sprinkled with powdered sugar and left as is. They disappear very quickly. This will probably encourage you to make candied lemon peel at home as often as possible. This is not only candy, but also protection against colds in the autumn and spring. But after finishing cooking, you still have lemon syrup left. No need to throw it away. Pour into a jar and put in the refrigerator. It is perfect for soaking biscuits. It is added to tea and simply eaten as jam. Great addition, natural and delicious!

Step-by-step process for preparing candied fruits

Preparing candied fruits at home is not difficult, but housewives need to be patient and follow the recipe step by step.

Preparing and soaking lemon peels

Before you begin the cooking process, the crusts must be soaked and prepared.

Step by step steps for preparation:

Place the lemon peels in a large saucepan and pour in cold water – it should completely cover the peels. Soak them for 3-4 days. It is important to change the water to fresh water 2-3 times a day. This technique will help get rid of the bitterness inherent in lemon peels.
At the end of soaking, the peels are poured into a colander and washed with clean running water.
Then dry with paper towels and place on a cutting board.
The crusts are cut into strips up to 1 centimeter thick or into cubes with a side of 1 centimeter.
Then transfer to a large saucepan, add cold water and place over medium heat.
Bringing to a boil, cook the crusts for 10-15 minutes, stirring with a wooden spatula.

Cook the preparations in syrup

Now the lemon peel goes through the second stage of preparation, which consists of cooking in syrup.

Step by step steps for preparation:

Place the boiled crusts in a colander and leave for 10 minutes to drain the liquid, and then pour into a deep pan.
350 milliliters of water are poured into them and sugar is added. The workpiece is again placed on medium heat and stirred constantly with a spatula.
Don't be afraid that the crusts will burn - after a few minutes they will release juice and the sugar will begin to melt.
Boil the aromatic citrus syrup for 10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then the syrup is removed from the heat and left to cool.
After the workpiece has cooled, put it back on medium heat and add citric acid dissolved in a spoonful of water. Then mix everything and bring the liquid to a boil.
Now boil the mass until the liquid has almost completely evaporated. This takes about 15 minutes.

Bringing the dish to readiness

Now place a metal grid with medium-sized cells on a baking sheet and begin the final stage of preparing candied fruits.

Step by step steps for preparation:

Remove the pan with the preparation from the stove, pour all the contents into a colander and leave for 5-7 minutes.
After this, the still sticky lemon peels are placed on a wire rack, allowed to dry slightly and cool for a few minutes.
Then they are generously sprinkled with the remaining sugar and left for 2-3 hours at room temperature. This will allow the candied fruits to dry on the outside while remaining soft on the inside.
Now comes the last step in preparation - the baking sheet with candied fruits is placed in a dry, ventilated and warm place, where the candied fruits reach condition within 1 week.

Recipe with spices

Candied orange peels can be prepared at home using only leftover peels. Even if you can’t eat all the dried fruit, you can use them as room scents by placing them on shelves in decorative jars.

Slices of sugar zest are used to decorate baked goods and morning cereals.

You will need the following set of products:

zest of 5 oranges;
drinking water – 5.5 glasses;
granulated sugar – 2 cups;
ground cinnamon - 1 tbsp. l.;
ground black pepper – 6 peas;
cardamom – 1 tsp;
powdered ginger – 1 tsp;
clove umbrellas – 4 pcs.;
cane sugar - for sprinkling.

Cooking instructions:

The peel is peeled and cut into long strips. To get rid of bitterness, the peels are filled with water and boiled for 10 minutes. The water is decanted and the manipulation is repeated 3 times. A pinch of salt is added to the last filling. Boiled soft candied fruits are dumped into a colander, at the same time syrup is boiled from 1.5 cups of water, spices and sugar

The pouring spicy liquid is boiled and systematically stirred until the crystals dissolve. Carefully place orange peels into the boiling syrup, mix and boil. The fire is turned on, and the mass is extinguished for 2.5 hours, while being systematically mixed. The crust slices will absorb most of the sugar syrup, becoming honey-amber and translucent. A bouquet of spices gives the preparation a special flavor. Next comes the drying of the oranges. The oven rack is covered with wax paper. Using a slotted spoon, the slices are removed from the syrup and distributed in an even layer on the paper. The crusts are covered with cane sugar and left overnight to dry. The prepared sugar powder is stored in a jar with a screwed lid.

A vase with aromatic pieces can be placed on the table for tea.

Recommendations for design

You don't always have three days to soak the crusts. If you want to make healthy candies quickly, then it is better to choose a different recipe. You can make candied lemons at home in different shapes: cut them into cubes, stars, strips.

So, let's start preparing the lemons. We will remove the peel in a spiral, this will be useful if you want to cut them into cubes. You can simply divide the fruit into 4 parts and remove the peel from each of them. This is if you want to cook candied fruits in thin strips.

The skin must be removed in such a way that a little white part remains on it. If it is too thick, it will give off a bitter taste, but if you cut off only the yellow skin, the candied fruit will come out very thin.

What are the benefits of this delicacy?

Having learned how to make candied lemon and orange, many will wonder whether this delicacy can really be considered a useful and healthy food. They are suitable to complement your healthy diet. But we are not talking about excessive use. Just 50 g of candied fruits can satisfy the body's daily need for fiber and vitamins. You can always change the recipe, that is, add less sugar. In this case, the calorie content will be even lower.

Candied fruits are an energy-intensive product. This is very useful for people who are engaged in physical labor. In addition, they are very compact and fit easily in a small lunchbox. They are convenient to take with you on the road and to work.

With proper consumption of candied fruits, you can quickly get rid of extra pounds. They contain quite a lot of substances that promote the breakdown of fats.

Regular consumption of candied fruits will improve your well-being, facial skin and hair structure. And all thanks to the vitamin concentrate.

Candied fruits in the microwave

This convenient device allows you to prepare a treat in 25 minutes. At the same time, all types of work can be performed in the microwave, that is, cooking and drying. All you have to do is soak the peels in boiling water for 10 minutes - and you can begin further heat treatment. For this recipe you will need:

Crusts – 350 g.
Sugar – 180 g.
Boiling water – 700 g.

Minimum ingredients, yet great results! The first step is to pour boiling water over the strips for 10 minutes. Feel free to drain the water; it does not have a strong aroma or taste, so there is little point in saving it. Place the crusts in a suitable container (wide and flat is best) and add 90 g of sugar. Cook in the microwave for 10 minutes at 700 W. Add sugar and repeat.

During this time, syrup usually forms. It can be drained and saved for future use. Lightly dry the candied fruits on medium power for 8 minutes. Pour the finished product into a vase. The longer they lie there, the harder they will become. But usually such sweets do not last long.