Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Candied orange cubes are strips of fresh orange skin, blanched to take away the bitterness and then simmered slowly in a sugar and glucose syrup until they turn soft, glossy and translucent. Cut into small cubes, they keep a clean citrus perfume and a gentle chew rather than the hard, sugary bite of cheap commercial peel.
I keep a jar of these in the kitchen all year. They go into fruit cakes, tea cakes, stollen and panettone, into sweet doughs and biscuit fillings, and they are good enough dipped in chocolate and served on their own with coffee. Because they are cooked in a syrup made with glucose, they stay soft and do not crystallise in storage.
Ingredients
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Weight Per Unit: 1053
Number of Units: 1
Unit Size: jar of candied 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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Oranges
thick-skinned oranges
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washed, peel removed and most of the white pith trimmed away |
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B
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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.
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C
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2.5 |
0.1 ounce
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Citric Acid
Citric acid is the natural acid found in lemons and other citrus fruit, sold as fine white crystals or powder. A small pinch sharpens the flavour of sugar syrups and helps stop them crystallising during storage.
powder or fine crystals
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dissolved in a teaspoon of water |
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D
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50 |
1.8 ounces
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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.
43 DE
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1052
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Recipe Calculator Tool
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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 oranges well, peel the skin off in wide panels and scrape or trim away most of the white pith from A (orange peel). Cut the panels into strips and then into cubes of about 1 cm. |
Even sized cubes so they candy at the same rate |
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2 |
Blanch |
Put the cubes in a saucepan, cover generously with cold water, bring to the boil and drain. Repeat this two more times with fresh cold water each time. |
Bitterness washed out; the peel should be soft enough to press between your fingers |
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3 |
Make Syrup |
In the same pan combine B and D (caster sugar and glucose syrup) with enough water to cover the peel, about 500 ml, and stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. |
Clear syrup, no sugar grains on the bottom of the pan |
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4 |
Simmer |
Add the blanched cubes, bring to a bare simmer and cook gently, uncovered, until the peel turns translucent and the syrup thickens to a light honey consistency (around 105–107°C / 221–225°F). |
Cubes glassy and translucent right through, syrup coating the spoon |
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5 |
Acidify |
Stir C (citric acid), dissolved in a teaspoon of water, through the hot syrup and take the pan off the heat. |
Syrup tastes bright, not flat or cloying |
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6 |
Rest |
Leave the cubes to cool and steep in their syrup overnight so they absorb the last of the sugar. |
Cubes plump, soft and heavy with syrup |
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7 |
Drain |
Lift the cubes out with a slotted spoon and drain them on a rack set over a tray for a few hours, keeping the syrup. |
Surface tacky but no longer wet |
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8 |
Store |
Pack the cubes into a clean jar, either dry or covered with their own syrup, and seal. |
Soft and pliable, not hard or crystallised |
Important Notes
This half batch makes roughly 1 kg of finished cubes from about 500 g of trimmed peel — six to eight large, thick-skinned oranges. Choose fruit with heavy skin and leave a thin layer of white pith on; it holds the syrup and gives the cubes their soft bite. The three changes of blanching water are what remove the bitterness, so do not skip them. Keep the cooking at a gentle simmer: boiled hard, the peel toughens and the syrup caramelises. Stored in a sealed jar the cubes keep for several months in the fridge, in their syrup or well drained. Before folding them into a cake batter, drain them well and toss them in a spoonful of the recipe's flour so they stay suspended instead of sinking. The leftover orange syrup is excellent for brushing sponges or sweetening drinks.
Tools & Arrangements
Vegetable peeler or small sharp knife, chopping board, large heavy-based saucepan, slotted spoon, colander or sieve, cooling rack and tray, sugar thermometer (optional), clean storage jars with lids
