After drinking the juice of all those terrific Sagada oranges 
I wrote about a few days ago, I had a fridge full of about 25 orange peels – and the best thing I could think of to make with them was candied orange peel. Candied orange peel is absolutely delicious, and actually, really easy (if a bit time consuming) to make. From the 20+ oranges we were able to make about 800 grams of candied orange peel rolled in caster sugar and another 800 grams of peel that were dipped into dark chocolate. We gave them away at the end of a dinner party, to friends, and ate a lot as well…yum. Little cellophane bags with about 80 grams of the candied orange peel were the little “pabaon†that we sent home with dinner guests.
To make, wash the skins well and remove as much of the white pith as possible (this stuff is quite bitter and has a weird mouth feel if too much is left on). 
Slice the peel thinly and put in a large pot. Cover with water and add about a tablespoon on salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30-40 minutes. Drain, change the water and repeat but without the salt. Drain and change the water and repeat process again. Then make a sugar syrup that is about 2 cups water and 2 cups granulated sugar and simmer the drained orange peels in this mixture for about 30-40 minutes. Sugar should not caramelize or turn brown so keep the heat low. Essentially, the peel is just absorbing the sugar and oddly, goes from soft to a firmer texture. If you really wanted to do it the old style, soaking in sugar syrup would take days until the peel is essentially almost purely sugar. This simple recipe I used however came from recipelink.com although I am skeptical how their recipe with 8 oranges made 3-4 lbs of candy when my 20+ oranges barely made 3 lbs of candy…I used a total of four cups of sugar and 4 cups of water for all of my peels.
Once the peels in syrup look done (not much liquid left and they have a glossy appearance), drain the peels and cool a bit before rolling in caster sugar. 
I like caster (finer) sugar because it has much smaller grains and goes well with the small size of the peels. Caster sugar is available in large groceries under the Peotraco brand (they also make the powdered sugar). Dry the peels on a cookie rack. You will be amazed by how hard and dry they get, even in our really humid tropical weather. For half of the peels, I skipped the rolling in sugar step and dipped them directly into dark chocolate and put those in the fridge to set…they were excellent too. I now understand why these delicacies are so expensive when you purchase them from chocolate shops…the amount of time and labor put into them (not to mention the individual dipping in chocolate as I cannot imagine a machine doing it well) is what piles on the cost. Otherwise, if you have leftover peels, lots of sugar and time, you have the ingredients of a delicious and perfect food gift.
19 Responses
And you customise it according to your taste if you do it yourself. Assured quality too.
I’ll try your recipe next time we have oranges. We made marmalade the last time.
I love the Orange Cake at Bellinis (Marikina Shoe Expo, Cubao) — he places a whole lot of candied orange rind on top of his wonderfully moist butter cake and it’s absolutely fabulous. And highly unusual.
What a great idea to put orange peel on butter cake. Maybe I will try baking a pound cake later this week and incorporate chopped up unsugared orange peel into the batter…hmmm…yum! Where exactly is this Bellinis?
Bellini’s is this great Italian Restaurant in Cubao — the entrance of the Marikina Shoe Expo is right across from Rustan’s in Araneta Center. You can call them for directions.
Marikina Shoe Expo Cubao, Quezon City. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call +63 2 9132550.
I’m not sure if a Bellinis’ branch is still at the food court of Greenbelt Mall in Makati. Personally, the food at their original location in Cubao is better.. & with more food choices, too.
Thanks, I have to give them a try the next time I am in the Cubao area…
Maybe you can also try making a light sugar syrup, add in the orange peel to flavor the syrup. Stir in some liquer or rum and drizzle on the warm cake until it absorbs the syrup.
Thank you for the homemade orange in chocolate recipe. Do you know if the recipe works with mandarin oranges as well?
Bellinis is visible once you enter the Marikina Shoe Expo. Plus there are some nice galleries and shops in the expo, so it would be a great place to spend a few hours browsing through the area. There’s parking at the expo, and if I remember correctly, there was a place across from Rustans that did a very frothy cup of hot Spanish chocolate, not too sweet. We had merienda there after walking around the Expo and a hearty lunch at Bellinis. Unfortunately the name escapes me.
I was so thrilled with some of these ideas that I am in the middle of baking a lemon pound cake with chopped candied orange peel in it… will post in a few days if the experiment worked. I usually make the candied peels with valencia oranges, possibly navels good too. They tend to have a thicker rind but I am not sure how mandarins will fare… I read somewhere that pomelo and grapefruit peels work well too, but I haven’t tried those yet.
Soak candied 1 1/2 c. candied orange peel in 1/2c. Rum or Grand Marnier for several hours before draining and chopping and adding to pound cake cake batter. This way they will be moist and slightly chewy instead of like pebbles in cake. You can drizzle cooked cake with the leftover liquer and top with more candied orange peel or even better, thinly sliced candied orange sections.
Try this pound cake recipe:
1 1/4 lb. best available unsalted lb. butter room temp 70F (2 1/2 c. of Plugra or Beurre Marie)
3 3/4 c. castor or extra fine white sugar
8 extra large eggs room temp.
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp. grated orange or lemon rind
2 c. unsifted cake flour
1 3/4 c. unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. each salt and baking powder
1/2 c. heavy cream or evaporated milk or sour cream
Cream butter and sugar 5 min until very fluffy.
Add eggs one by one, beat well. Add vanilla. Shift dry ingredients together and add along with the cream, mix only until smooth. Add grated rind and chopped peel. Mixture will be satiny and thick.
Grease and flour 1 10″ bundt pan or 3 loaf pans 8x4x4″ or line with parchment. Fill 3/4 full with batter, level off.
Bake in preheated 300F oven 60-70 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool.
Drizzle with left over rum or liquer or brush with the following glaze:
Mix 1 c sugar with 1/3 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice and 1 tbsp. lemon or orange zest.
$2.50 an inch at Payard and more at LMduC.
Above recipe makes a delicate genoise-like cake. For a dense pound cake texture use 2 c. unsifted all purpose flour and 2 c. unsifted cake flour. You are on your way to a fruitcake.
Thank you, thank you mad baker!!! I got this recipe too late to correct my first attempt and did end up with rather chewy bits of orange peel near the bottom of the cake. It still tasted delicious but I was wondering how I might soften the candied orange peel. We have lots of peel left so I will try your recipe soon. Thanks.
Marketman, try coating the soaked and drained orange peel with some of the flour in the recipe so that they are more evenly distributed throughout the cake and not sink to the bottom
They have a branch in Greenbelt? The Cubao branch is charming.
Have you tried candying dalandan peels? Do you think mascobado sugar will do it?
I haven’t tried dalandan, strikes me as a bit thin, but who knows… muscovado might turn too dark and bitter but again, experimentation is good! Try it!
If you are only an occasional baker you may want to use 4 c. of all purpose flour only. My candied orange peel does not dare sink to the bottom of the cake…
hi roda!ayneng kanyaman itang orange peel! uhmmm! saraaaaaaaappp!!!!!!! yeah boy!!!!!!!
wow i when taste that sagada orange i said wow philippines that we planted orange so juices and sweet
aha! now i know what to do when I’ll see this enormous oranges from sagada!