Candied orange peel is a nice garnish for a festive cake or a plate of holiday cookies.  It’ s a bit of a pain to make, but one batch will last a long time.  And your house will smell amazing while you are making this recipe.

This recipe will work for any type of citrus peel.

For this recipe you’ll need:

• The peels of 6-8 oranges.  Use a vegetable peeler to remove the peels in large strips.  Don’t worry if some of the white pith remains.
• 4 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Soak the peels in water overnight.  This removes some of the bitterness and softens the peels.

Cut the peels into strips about 1/4″ wide.  Trim off any ugly edges.

Put the peels, sugar, corn syrup and 1 1/2 cups of water in a medium saucepan.

Simmer over low heat for an hour.  The peels will become translucent.

Using a fork or tongs, place the peels onto a rack over a cookie sheet or some foil (sugar will drip down).  Be careful because the sugar syrup is very hot.  Keep some space between the peels so they won’t stick together.  If the sugar in the pot starts to harden, warm it up a bit.  But don’t do this too often or your mixture will turn into a huge crystallized lump.

If you want a light sugar coating, let the peels dry on the racks for a few hours then toss them in sugar to remove any remaining stickiness.  If you want a thicker coating of sugar, dry for 10 minutes then toss the peels in sugar.

Store in an airtight container with some sugar sprinkled on top.

Enjoy!