Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Candied lemon cubes are lemon peel simmered slowly in a sugar and glucose syrup until the bitterness is gone and the peel turns soft, glossy and translucent. Once cooled and diced they are sweet with a clean, sharp citrus perfume, tender to bite but still with a little chew.
They are one of the small basics worth keeping in the cupboard. Fold them through fruit cakes, tea cakes, stollen and panettone style doughs, scatter them over tarts and mousse cakes, or dip them in chocolate. Because the peel is cooked in a heavy syrup they keep for months and stay soft rather than drying out.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
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Weight Per Unit: 1526
Number of Units: 1
Unit Size: batch of candied lemon cubes, about 1 kg
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WEIGHT
(grams)
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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500 |
17.6 ounces
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Fresh Lemon Skin
Fresh lemon skin is the peel cut from whole lemons, ideally including a little of the white pith so the pieces hold their shape during cooking. Use unwaxed lemons if you can, and scrub them well before peeling.
from unwaxed lemons
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washed and cut into strips or cubes |
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B
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25 |
0.9 ounce
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Glucose Syrup
Glucose syrup, also known as confectioner's glucose, is a syrup made from the hydrolysis of starch. Glucose is a sugar. Maize (corn) is commonly used as the source of the starch in the US, in which case the syrup is called "corn syrup", but glucose syrup is also made from potatoes and wheat, and less often from barley, rice and cassava.
Glucose syrup containing over 90% glucose is used in industrial fermentation, but syrups used in confectionery contain varying amounts of glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade, and can typically contain 10% to 43% glucose. Glucose syrup is used in foods to sweeten, soften texture and add volume. By converting some of the glucose in corn syrup into fructose (using an enzymatic process), a sweeter product, high fructose corn syrup can be produced.
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C
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500 |
17.6 ounces
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Sugar
Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
caster
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D
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1 |
0 ounce
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Potassium Sorbate (preservative 202)
Potassium sorbate, listed on labels as preservative 202, is a food-grade powder used in very small amounts to stop mould and yeast growing in jams, pastes and fillings. It is optional at home if the paste is kept refrigerated and used within a few weeks.
optional
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E
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500 |
16.9 fluid_ounces
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Water
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1526
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
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The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Prepare |
Wash the lemons well, peel A (fresh lemon skin) away in wide strips with a little of the white pith left on, and cut it into even cubes of about 5 to 8 mm. |
Pieces all a similar size so they candy at the same rate |
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2 |
Blanch |
Put A (fresh lemon skin) in a saucepan, cover generously with cold water, bring to the boil and drain. Repeat this three times with fresh cold water each time. |
Peel is tender to the bite and most of the bitterness is gone |
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3 |
Make syrup |
In a wide saucepan combine half of C (caster sugar) with 500 g of D (water) and B (glucose syrup), and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. |
Clear syrup, no sugar crystals on the base |
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4 |
Simmer |
Add the drained A (fresh lemon skin) to the syrup, bring back to a gentle simmer, then take off the heat and leave to stand, covered, for a few hours or overnight. |
Peel sitting below the surface of the syrup |
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5 |
Build up |
Add a third of the remaining C (caster sugar), bring back to a simmer for a few minutes and leave to rest again. Repeat twice more over the next day or two until all of C (caster sugar) is used. |
Syrup thickens each time; peel gradually turns glossy and translucent |
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6 |
Finish |
On the last cooking bring the syrup to a gentle simmer and cook until it thickens and the peel looks candied right through. |
Syrup reads about 105°C (221°F) and the cubes are translucent |
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7 |
Preserve |
Take the pan off the heat, let it cool to below 60°C (140°F), then stir in D (potassium sorbate) if you are using it. |
Fully dissolved and evenly mixed through |
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8 |
Store |
Pack the cubes with their syrup into clean, dry jars while still warm, seal, and cool completely. Drain and pat dry just before using in a cake batter. |
Cubes covered by syrup; cool and set aside for at least a day before use |
Important Notes
This batch makes a little over 1 kg of candied lemon cubes in their syrup. The sheet notes that basics like this lose and gain weight through cooking, so treat the yield as a guide. Stored in the syrup in a sealed jar the cubes keep for several months in a cool, dark cupboard, and longer in the fridge; the small amount of preservative is what the commercial batch uses and can be left out if you plan to use them within a few weeks. Blanching three times is what takes the harshness out of the peel, so do not skip it, and add the sugar in stages rather than all at once or the peel will shrink and toughen. Drain the cubes and dust them with a little of the flour from your cake recipe before folding them in, so they stay suspended in the batter.
Tools & Arrangements
Vegetable peeler or small sharp knife, chopping board, large heavy-based saucepan, wide pan for candying, slotted spoon, colander or sieve, sugar thermometer, clean dry jars with lids
