Because we have so much fruit, I decide to try and preserve some of the citrus in something other than just marmalade or frozen lemon juice ice cubes.

I decide to try and make some citrus candied peel.

I have a couple of different approaches. First I try amd make some finely sliced candied peel.

I peel the bright orange peel from the fruit with a standard veggie peeler. I separate it from the pith off the fruit and then slice it finely with a knife.

I’m using grapefruit, lemonade and tangello peel. Why? Because that is the fruit that we shared for breakfast.

I boil the peel in water for a few minutes, then change the water and repeat to reduce the bitterness.

I change the water about 3 times, then let it simmer gently for quite a few minutes to soften the peel.

I drain of the water and weigh the fruit. Add the same amount of sugar as the weight of the damp fruit.

Then return the water to the sauce pan with the fruit and sugar and simmer for 30 mins.

Once they are softened, I drain off the water and put them on a mesh tray to dry.

After drying in the wood stove oven that is cooling down overnight with the oven door open, dip them in melted dark chocolate and store in the fridge.

Delicious! They are crisp, crunchy, sweet and citrus sour.

The next night, I try repeating the process using whole slices of navel oranges.

These whole slices are boiled in the same way and then candied as above.

These are very nice after drying and dipped in 80% dark chocolate.

They are particularly nice! They don’t last long.

I’ll have to make another batch using 10 oranges next time, so that they can last a few days.

Winter does have it’s advantages.