Candied Pumpkin

Even if your homemade do not like pumpkin dishes, these sweet orange candies will fly away quickly and merrily, like red leaves from an autumn tree! To taste pumpkin pumpkin resembles marmalades or oriental sweetness of Turkish Delight in a thin layer of powdered sugar. Pieces of amber, which have retained the sun for the winter, the light and the aroma of summer - this is what candied pumpkin is! There are many different recipes: with oranges, cinnamon, honey. We will cook pumpkin and lemon candies: this sunny citrus, added to the basic recipe, will give the dessert a slight pleasant sourness, which is quite useful - there is a lot of sugar in the syrup, and the pumpkin itself is sweet.

Candied Pumpkin

Cooking candied pumpkin from a rather long time and takes two to three days, but it is absolutely not tiring, because your participation takes only four to five minutes. Plus, cut the pumpkin at the beginning and roll in powdered sugar at the end of cooking. So while the season of reddish autumn pumpkin beauty lasts, I recommend preparing a simple treat for your home - this is much more useful than the candied store!

It is best suited for making candied pumpkin nutmeg varieties - those that are shaped like bottles: they have the sweetest and brightest flesh. However, you can try to make a treat from round pumpkins.

If you prefer an orange note, you can use juice and orange zest instead of lemon slices. For cinnamon lovers, we put cinnamon sticks in syrup, and if you don’t like its flavor, we substitute a clove bud or don’t use any spices at all.

  • Cooking time: 2 days
  • Servings: approximately 150 g of candied fruit and 100 ml of syrup

Ingredients for making candied pumpkin

  • 400 g raw pumpkin;
  • 200 g of sugar (1 cup);
  • Half a lemon;
  • 1 apple;
  • Cinnamon stick;
  • 1/3 - 1/2 glass of water;
  • 1, 5-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar.
Candied Pumpkin

Method of making candied pumpkin

Peel the pumpkin, rinse and dice about 2 to 2 cm. You should not make too small pieces - if you dare, candied fruits may turn out too dry and hard, and we need soft and elastic ones. It is more convenient to take the pulp from the long end of the pumpkin, and use the round part for other recipes - for example, pumpkin muffins or porridge.

Candied Pumpkin

Lemon will be washed, carefully rubbing the rind with a brush under a stream of hot water to wash off the layer of wax that is sometimes covered with citrus fruits for preservation during transportation. Then we boil the boiling water for 5-7 minutes - bitterness will leave the zest and you can add fragrant lemon peel to the syrup.

Candied Pumpkin

The apple will also wash and peel it off - just the right one for the recipe. What for? Apple skin contains pectin - a natural gelling element that helps candied fruits to acquire the right structure: not to boil soft syrup, but to become like marmalade. Even more pronounced gelling properties of quince, as you learn from the recipe quince candied fruits.

Candied Pumpkin

Pour pumpkin cubes into an enamel or stainless pan, add apple peel and lemon, cut into very thin slices. I like this option more than grated zest and squeezed juice. Then the translucent sweet and sour slices are great to add to tea, and they are also tasty by themselves and resemble sweet lemon chips.

Candied Pumpkin

Fill the pan with sugar and put it in the fridge for 3-4 hours, but better at night. The pumpkin will make juice, the sugar will melt, and syrup will form in the saucepan.

Fill up with some water - so much so that the blanks are completely covered with it, and put it on the stove. Heat without a lid on the fire a little less than average, bringing to a boil. When the syrup boils, we note the time and boil for 5 minutes. Then remove from heat and set aside to cool completely - this is important!

If you are not waiting for impatience, until the syrup and preparations for candied fruits have completely cooled down, and again begin to heat them - there is a risk that the pieces will be boiled loose. It turns out jam, but not candied ... Therefore, we wait patiently for 3-4 hours. Feel free to forget about candied fruit and go for a walk in the autumn park!

Candied Pumpkin

Then we heat the syrup a second time, boil for five minutes, let it cool. Repeat a total of 3-4 times. Gradually, the syrup is becoming thicker, and pumpkin cubes - more transparent.

Candied Pumpkin

At this stage, you can stop and preserve candied fruits in syrup, getting jam, similar to “pumpkin honey” with pieces of pulp. If you prefer “sweets”, then continue!

Candied Pumpkin

At the end of cooking the syrup is already noticeably smaller. In terms of density, it resembles fresh honey. Boil the candied fruit for the 4th time, we catch them with a skimmer, not waiting for it to cool. When hot, the syrup is thinner and easier to drain. Having taken a portion of candied fruit on a skimmer, we wait until the syrup flows, and then we shift them to a plate.

Candied Pumpkin

Leave for a couple of hours. During this time, the syrup remaining on the pieces of pumpkin will drain on a plate. We shift candied fruit on parchment paper, at a distance of a couple of centimeters from each other, in one layer. Candied fruits are almost ready, it remains to dry them so that the excess moisture is evaporated.

Candied Pumpkin

There are two ways to dry candied fruit: fast and slow. The first is suitable for you in the presence of convection ovens, electric dryers or ovens with convection, which can be adjusted to low temperatures. It should be dried at a low temperature, so as not to overdry, otherwise candied fruits will become very hard (not crushable). For different ovens, the temperature and time vary: from 50 ° C with the door closed to 90-100 ° C with the door ajar; 2-3 hours to 4 hours.

Candied Pumpkin

I prefer a natural way to dry at room temperature — you can’t overdry it. Putting candied fruit on parchment, set in a dry place and leave until morning. If the kitchen is warm and dry, the next day they are ready. If it is still too wet, turn it over to the other side. If necessary, change the parchment and leave for another half a day.

Checking the look and feel: ready-made candied fruits are elastic, in the middle is soft, the outside is still a bit sticky. Do not dry them too much, otherwise the powder will not stick. This is how beautiful pumpkin pumpkin shines in the sun!

Candied Pumpkin

Now you can roll them on all sides in powdered sugar. Fine and delicate powder is better suited for this purpose than granulated sugar: the smallest “specks of dust” adhere better to the surface of candied fruit than large sugar crystals, and when dropped into storage containers do not allow pieces to stick together into one large candied fruit.

Candied Pumpkin

Pumpkin candied fruits can be stored all winter in hermetically sealed containers - for example, in glass jars with screw-on lids.

Or in the syrup, like jam, then the stages of drying and rolling in the powder are omitted.

Candied Pumpkin

For the impregnation of the cake layers we dilute the syrup with boiled water of 1: 1.

Pumpkin candied fruits are tasty and just like that, and a bit of tea and tea. You can decorate cakes with them, add them to the dough for baking along with raisins and dried fruits, and soak biscuits with syrup, put it in tea instead of sugar. And if you keep the candied fruit in the syrup, you get a very beautiful amber jam.

With such “pieces of the sun” autumn will be fine, and winter - warm!

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