I have been on a mission to learn how to make
candied fruits like I have seen in Paris and the Amalfi coast. Whole little fruits are candied and make a nice gift for special occasions. The process takes about 16 days in which time the sugar concentration of the syrup is increased slightly every day.
It is essentially a process of osmosis. The water of the fruit is removed and replaced with sugar. This renders the fruit preserved and will have a shelf life of up to a year without refrigeration.
I use a
refractometer to measure the sugar concentration. And the instructions I am following are in
Jean-Pierre Wybauw's book 'Fine Chocolates-Great Experience'.
I have used Florida lemons and oranges, Meyer lemons (see picture of whole fruit) and California mandarins. Ideally, you find small fruits and candy them whole. Strawberries, sekel pears, miniature oranges, and pineapple rings are a few of the popular fruits used. So far, I only have sliced Florida lemons ready. I sliced the
Meyer lemons thicker and it didn't work as well as the thinly sliced Florida lemons. The mandarins didn't work as well as the navel organges. I think they have a lot more water in them.
I love making these kinds of things! I've got to go read about what a refractometer is.
ReplyDeleteHi Pam,
ReplyDeleteIt is a pricey little toy but I am thinking to do this as a business. So I need all the input I can get!
Hi Pam, I've done a batch of sliced orange but have 2 issues I wanted to ask you opinion on: 1) the rind is quite chewy and 2) the orange itself is still quite juicy, not sure if it should be drier or if they're meant to be like this because they're made fresh and not bought ie old??? Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated. cheers Jen
ReplyDeletesounds like a terrific idea! if I lived near you I'd buy them from you, because I don't have the patience to do them myself. I prefer the easier ones called cristalline, which are just dried in the oven.
ReplyDelete