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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Practically free candy -- candied orange peel

How very frugal I feel in the month of January. The pantry and freezer are still quite full, enough that I need to spend very little at the store. We've just had our fill of goodies and party foods, so we really have no desire to eat out. And the things that I do buy at the grocery store, such as oranges, have so many ways to get the most bang for our buck.

Here's the candy that I made last week that was so yummy, and soooooo cheap! Candy made out the part of the fruit, that most people toss into the garbage or the compost.

Candied orange peel, so yummy, so frugal.

I follow the Joy of Cooking's recipe for Candied Citrus Peel, although I don't roll mine in powdered sugar as a final step, but spread the pieces of candied peel out on waxed paper, and allow to dry out for about 1 day.


Some of this glazed orange peel we eat as is.


The best looking pieces I dip in melted dark chocolate (stir in a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon shortening to aid in the dipping). Boxed up in a candy box, these make a nice small gift.

And the remainder, I chop to use in baking, as a substitute for dried or glaced fruit. Once chopped, I store it in the freezer, until needed.


Chopped candied orange peel can be used in recipes calling for fruit cake fruit mix (the brightly colored glaced citron pieces and cherries). I make a bread at Easter that uses fruit cake mix, only I use a combination of chopped candied orange peel, chopped dried apricots, and chopped prunes from our plum tree. The bonus here is there are no weird colors. I never could get used to the green cherries my mother would add to fruitcake.

There is one aspect of oranges that I don't care for, peeling them with my fingers. Peeling oranges seems to split the skin under my fingernails from the nails themselves -- ouch! So I use a spoon to peel oranges. Here's how I peel an orange with a spoon.


I score the orange, with a knife, just through the peel, into quarters. I take a tablespoon, flip it over, so the bowl side is up, slip it under the peel, and slide it around, loosening the peel from the orange. It's very quick and saves my fingernails.

I now have an orange for eating, and orange peel all ready to slice for making candied orange peel.


Now, if only there was a way to do something yummy with banana peels.


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