This recipe for candied lemon peel is a tasty way to use up leftover lemon rind and is perfect for dessert or coffee. This approach works with any citrus fruit and has a taste that is quite similar to candy. If you utilize oranges, you can flavor the combination with cognac, cloves, or other spices. You may either eat it by itself or chop it up and add it to cookies or desserts.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 15 |
Ingredients
- 3 lemons
- 8 cups cold water, or as needed
- 2 cups white sugar, or as needed
Instructions
- Cut lemons into slices about 1/4-inch thick and remove the fruit pulp. Cut the rings in half so the peels are in long strips.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Bring water and lemon peels to a boil in a small pan. Drain water, and repeat with fresh cold water. Repeat the boiling step three times (see Editor’s Note). Drain and set peels aside.
- Combine 2 cups fresh water with 2 cups sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to low and stir in citrus peels; simmer until the white pith is translucent. Store peels in syrup, refrigerated, to keep them soft.
- Alternatively, strain peels from syrup and allow them to dry. Toss dry candied peels in additional sugar and store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- If you use grapefruit peel, change the water and boil the peels about five times to remove the bitterness. For orange peel, one boiling is usually enough.
Reviews
These look beautiful, so maybe I’ll use them as a decorative garnish, but I don’t like eating them. They’re tough and much too sweet. Maybe boiling them for a lot longer would soften them up to a palatable texture, and I wonder if sprinkling a little citric acid along with the sugar would bring back some brightness to the lemon flavor.
Worked out well. I mixed the leftover sugar syrup with the reserved lemon juice to make a tasty syrup. Waste not want not!
Just perfect. I followed exactly the recipe and they tasted wonderful. I did let them simmer a bit longer as I was busy. I will shake them in sugar tomorrow before putting on a lemon cheesecake as a garnish Thank you
Super tasty and super easy. Totally addictive flavour. I ended up eating them all as candy!
Made it following the recipe. The pith is not removed as some may have suggested. It was boiled until translucent and perfect. I coated with sugar and used as a garnish for lemon curd cheese cake. Perfect!
This was not difficult, you want some of the white on it (the boiling helps take the bitterness out). I took the hint from someone else and boiled for the 5 mins each time and then, when it was time to do the sugar water simmer, it didn’t take long at all, because it was already transparent…so I’ll do that from now on. Great recipe
I make this recipe often. I love that I can make a yummy treat instead of throwing away the peel after juicing the lemons. I thinly slice the juiced lemons, this leaves a bit of the pulp attached but I think that adds to the candy. I find that if I boil the peel for at least 5 minutes each time I change the water it makes the peel much more tender.
I use these candied peels on top of my lemon pound cake. I was surprised the first time i served them how many people love candied peels! I have also used vanilla sugar to coat the peels.
If you make your own Hot Cross Buns, Mincemeat, Stollen, Fruit Cake, or anything else calling for candied peel, the home made version makes a huge flavour difference.
Just what I was looking for!
I made this as written and the lemon peels came out very VERY wet. I let them dry on racks overnight (12 hrs). Still very wet. To wet to toss in sugar. Next they went in the oven at 200F and with checking up on them every 5 minutes, were in there over a half hour before they were dry enough that I could let them cool and toss in sugar. Next time, instead of a 1/1 ratio of sugar to water, as the recipe calls for, I’ll do a 2/1.
It’s awesome. I want to use citric acid to make it sour
dip it in melted chocolate and it is amazing.
I boiled 3 times and followed the rest of the recipe. I let them dry out before eating but they still had a bitterness to them despite the sugar. Maybe it wasn’t the right type of lemons. I was bummed because I had some from Trader’s Joe that were so yummy.
I found this recipe while searching for something to do with the lemon peels. I use lemon in my water, then when it starts tasting a bit bitter, I boil them to give the house a nice fresh smell but recently, I thought I could do more with my lemons and someone suggested candied lemon peels which led me to this recipe. I tried it right away and I will keep using it. They tasted lemony even with all the boiling. I can wait to try them with my lemon desserts. I will also definitely find a use for the lemon syrup. Thank you for sharing
I boiled and put fresh cold water 4times instead of 3 times. I did lime peels and lemon peels. We did two lemons and one lime. Taste test soon.
I used 2 cups of sugar to one cup of water and then simmered the peels for 45 minutes. Came out perfect!!
This was an easy and great recipe.
This recipe is pretty vague. It took about an hour to get the pitch translucent. Other recipes said to let the rind dry on a rack overnight, then toss in sugar. So I did that. I used yellow cookie sugar cause I wanted to get rid of it. I only used 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar for 2 lemons. This made a huge mess of my stovetop. Make sure to use a deep pot
Made as directed then added 4 teaspoons citric acid and a teaspoon of lemon extract to really bump up the flavor. Dehydrated in the oven tossed in sugar. Super yummo!
I followed the recipe directly and from it I got some amazing tasting candied lemon. I should make this recipe again soon.