When I was in Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa, there was not a lot of candy to be had. As grace would have it, I had a handy dandy Peace Corps cook book. It was made especially for people living in sparse conditions… like me! I noticed that candied orange peels might satisfy my sweet tooth. Plus it only require 2 ingredients: orange peels and sugar. Nice!
I can’t find my Peace Corps cook book! No! So Sad! But I looked online to find a candied orange peel recipe. I found a bunch of them… all of them quite different. I combined the general ideas to make up my own recipe. The basic idea is to cut the peel into strips and remove most of the white part of the peel. Then boil the peel in water for about 10 minutes…then throw out that water. The take 2 parts sugar to 1 part water and slow boil that with the peel in in until the mixture gets syrupy. (I added about a teaspoon or 2 of ginger powder to this.) Take the peel out of the syrup and let it cool. Toss the peel in sugar, and let it dry for a while.
I couldn’t see letting the remaining ginger orange sugar go to waste. So, I continued to cook the mixture until it turned to crystals again. I poured this onto a silpat. I guess I’ll crunch it up and save it to sprinkle on something in the future.
OK – that’s done. I got out my gorgeous flamed maple hand-crafted rolling pin. I don’t get to use that too often. So, here we have the ginger orange sugar crumble, candied orange peel, and some chunky almond butter enrobed in milk chocolate.