How to make Candied Lemon Peel

Making candied lemon peel is pretty easy.  Adjust the quantities below depending on how much you want to make.  I halved the ingredients listed below to make the candied peel to go on top of my Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins and I still had a reasonable amount left over.  You could use this recipe to candy the peel of other citrus fruits too.

You will need:
3 lemons
2 cups water
2 cups white sugar, or as needed

Remove the rind from the fruit.  There are two ways of doing this:

1. Cut lemons into slices and remove the fruit pulp. Scrape off as much of the white inner layer as you can, this part is bitter. A spoon or butter knife will work well.  This results in the circles of rind you can see in the picture above.

2. Use a vegetable peeler and peel off the skin, then cut it into thin strips.  This method is a lot quicker and the strips still have a pretty curl to them once they have been candied. 

Bring water to a boil in a small pan and add lemon peels.  Boil for about 5 minutes, until tender.  Remove peels from water and stir in sugar. Return to a boil, add peels and boil for about 15-20 minutes until the peels translucent.  Stir regularly as the mixture can burn.  Taste a piece of the peel – if it is bitter tasting, change the water and sugar so you have a fresh pot and re-boil the peel.  Continue to do this until you are satisfied with the flavour.  Drain and allow to dry before storing.  Liquid may be reserved and used as lemon simple syrup.

I sprinkled a little bit of sugar on my candied peels before using them to top my Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.