After researching this and finding many variations, this is what I have settled on. It is QUITE delicious and my own version.

Remove the orange skin and save it until you are ready for the cooking. There really is no need to peel a mess of oranges just to candy the skin. Save the skin of the oranges you are going to eat anyway. BUT get ones with good thick skin and pith, like a temple.

The skin can go in a baggie and in the freezer until you build up a sufficient supply to justify cooking.

You can quarter the skin with an orange peeler and then use scissors to cut it into orderly slices or you can peel it in chunks with your fingers. It just depends on your preference. Just do the sizing before you freeze, if you are going to freeze and hold.

When you are ready to cook place the peels with pith intact in a saucepan and cover them with lightly salted water. Bring to a boil and let it boil a minute or two then discard the water. Repeat twice more but without the salt.

Then cover the peels with 1 cup (240 ml) of sugar and 1/4 cup (60 ml) water. That is enough to make a syrup to candy 2 orange peels in a small saucepan. If you need more double or triple the amount but it may not be proportional to the amount of peel. You need the syrup to cover the peels and the sauce pan needs to have tall sides above the level of the syrup to prevent it from boiling over.

Bring the syrup to a boil and let it cook a good long while. I'm taking a full roiling boil. The syrup will first be clear, then frothy and finally settle down to a thicker consistancy as some water evaporates. The line between a tinge of tan meaning some carmelization and burnt is fine. Watch it closely but let it go until the tan begins. The white of the orange will become translucent as it gets done and the sugar syrup will be mostly gone, absorbed into the peel.

This stuff is HOT and dangerous. Don't touch it or taste it at this point.

Pour the peel and the syrup onto a screened surface like a cookie cooling rack and allow the excess syrup to drip away. I prefer to do this in the sink. Separate the bits.

You can let them dry for days like this but in my house that attracts ants because we don't use pesticides. An alternative and I suspect this improves the taste is to place the rack in the oven and turn it on to low at 200/250 Fahrenheit (90/120 Centigrade) for a short while every few hours for a day or so.

They come out chewy, sweet and with a bit of a bite. Very yummy.

It is my wishful thinking/belief that this candy at least is high in fiber but if you want to add some fat with your refined sugar high try coating it partially in dark chocolate.

Grapefruit and lemon are both good this way too.

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