In France, candied orange peels are a classic Christmas treat. You can candy it and roll it in sugar, or dip it 3/4 in dark chocolate. Either way it is delicious ! Fairly easy to do on the side of another treat or christmas cookie you are planning on!

Did you know you could use the steam cooker in the process of making them?

Many recipes online

Yes it is easy to find recipes online to make this French delicacy. And it is easy to make. One thing I don’t like though is to add up corn syrup to make it. Apparently it helps making the oranges less crumbly.

Steaming improves on the texture

I find that by making them partially in the steam cooker, as a first detox-precooking step, oranges are not at all caky after being rolled in sugar. I am not sure why that’s the case, but that’s my experience after making them many many times.

Peeling the fruit correctly to get maximum amounts of skin

Of course you can just keep your orange skin however you peel them. However it is not ideal, because oftentimes, our skin cut that way are thinner and won’t be as nice candied.

The ideal, is to cut your orange skin off properly at breakfast and plan on eating the fresh of the fruit then! Here is how:

Cut off top and bottom of the skin so the fruit can be standing on either side on its own. Trash this part of the skin. Then the whole skin around in think strips, leaving only the raw fruit. Then cut lengthwise in match-like strips !

Cut off top and bottom of the skin so the fruit can be standing on either side on its own. Trash this part of the skin. Then the whole skin around in think strips, leaving only the raw fruit. Then cut lengthwise in match-like strips !

First, a steam bath to detox

First, as detailed above, I peel the whole skin: that means I cut the orange raw, leaving the orange with no layer at all, the skins remains a but juicy! )

Then I simply steam the orange peels by placing them on the sieve for 10 minutes. This is a precooking process that also gives the peels a steam bath. The steam bath cleanses the skin, which is huge with the amounts of pesticides we are exposed to.

Precooking in the steamer shortens the time in the syrup

By precooking, I also shorten the amount of time orange peels need to sit in the sugar syrup. That may be what makes the orange less caky in the end. Within 15 minutes max, the skin starts being a touch transparent, and is candied enough. I then take the skins off the syrup and lay them in rows to dry for about four hours.

Less sugar is needed to candy orange peels

I also find that I use considerably less sugar to candy my peels than recipes require ! I use the same weight of sugar as the weight of steamed peels, a touch of water (1/4 cup).

The best is that I can keep the syrup to use in cakes!

Ready to learn how to make candied oranges in a steam cooker? Want to dit them in chocolate too? Me too ! Let’s go!

What do you need to make this recipe?

Really not much: A precision scale , , a small pot, a good sharp knife, food tweezers, parchment paper. Of course a good steam cooker like Vitaliseur, which you can order 10% off with code steamedcuisine ( Europeans, contact me for a different way to get a discount!)

And: little helpers to roll the skins in sugar or dip them in melted chocolate 😉