To me this crazy looking fruit tastes/smells like a really fragrant
Meyer lemon with hints of grapefruit, and if you can find it, I recommend you
give it a go. It’s not cheap, but what is? If you can’t find it, don’t despair;
this technique works perfectly fine with strips of orange or lemon peel.
The batch I boiled in water first had virtually no bitterness
left, and still had a fairly strong citrus flavor. The batch that was candied
raw definitely had a more fragrant aroma and vibrant taste, but unfortunately
there was a distinct bitter aftertaste.
Either way, I hope you can get your hands on some of these
hands, and give this fun, and easy to make holiday confection a try. Enjoy!
Ingredients for about 2 cups of candied citron:
(warning, I didn’t measure very carefully, but that doesn’t
matter here. As long as you have enough simple syrup to cook your citrus in,
you are fine)
3 cups cubed Buddha’s Hand citron, washed thoroughly, or other citrus peel,
sliced into 1/4-inch strips (simmer in plain water for 20-30 minutes before candying step)
2 1/2 cups sugar (plus extra for tossing the candied fruit in)
2 cups water
- cook on medium heat, stirring, until the syrup reaches
230F.
17 comments:
I Wonder, if dialing down the blanching time would make a nice middle road.
Hi Chef John, just want to say Merry Christmas to you and your family, and thank you for your great videos and recipes. I enjoy watching and I learn a lot (even though I've been cooking for 40 years)...I often pass along your recipes to my kids, maybe they'll learn to be good cooks watching you, and my son has your cookbook. Thanks for all the effort you put into helping us cook better!
Sandy in Georgia
So just go ahead and blanch it? I figured
Thanks for sharing!Great job.
since you candied them, are you intending to offer somebody a "Buddah Finger?"
Thanks. Video does good description. Wanted to copy recipe into my paprika app (recipe organizer), but found written rexipe not very clear. Ended up having to watch video again.
I am not sure if I am dissapointed that you didn't make an "All the Single Layers's" joke....
If you had, I would have put a ring on it...
Merry Christmas, and all the best greetings of the season, to you and your family.
I can't believe I found a recipe for this fruit! Found the fruit, didn't know what it is or what I could with it; then suddenly I spot this on YouTube! Thank you! Will try it now!
Hey John and everyone else!
I really love sour candies, just wondering if you've tried (or have any thoughts on) also adding in the juice of the citrus while simmering the citrus pieces?
I'm wondering if this will result in a much more sour tasting candy? What do you think?
Add 1-2 Tablespoons invert sugar (white Karo syrup) to the liquid at the outset.
This will help keep them chewy, otherwise they will harden with time as the sugar continues to go through a crystalline transformation. The invert sugar basically interferes with the crystalline structuring.
This reminds me of when I made orange marmalade. However, it just hit me... is this how I would go about creating the candied lemon/orange rinds that go into fruitcake?
I'm modifying this recipe to make candied sour watermelon rind. I picked one of my watermelons too early and decided to experiment rather than waste it. I peeled the dark green skin off the rind, cut it into chunks, blanched it and followed the same formula for your candied citron. However, I wanted a little more complexity, so I added a tiny bit of lemon peel, freshly grated nutmeg, two crushed green cardamom pods, and about 2.5tsp of citric acid to the syrup. For a little extra color, I added 3 drops of natural red gel food coloring. We'll see how it turns out.
Just want to pass along that what I've seen in Japanese cooking videos is just a soak in water and not a blanche. Might be a nice compromise.
What PatrickHD said. Thanks, Chef John, for confirming that blanching does make an important difference. From there, it would be interesting to see if 15 minutes of blanchin removed all or most of the bitterness and improved the aromatic quality of the finished product. OR - whether a longer cold water soak removed all bitterness but left the essential oils intact. Cold water works for leaching bitterness from acorns. Might work here too.
Chef John, I'd enjoying seeing a video on making Candied blood oranges!
As you add water to boil with sugar, wonder about adding part of original water used in blanching if its not bitter?
As you add additional water to sugar when boiling, what about adding back in part of water already used in blanching for more flavor if not off tasting?
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