Has anyone ever candied pumpkin? I don't mean preserving it in wet syrup, I mean preserving it like dried candied fruits. Have googled, but not much luck and would like to hear if anyone's done it before I start having a go.
Would the treatment for pears be a guide?
Or this?
http://www.ellenskitchen.com/pantry/glaceed.html
You're obviously not going anywhere for a while??
I once tried candying satsumas. If I remember correctly, you had to boil the fruit in a sugary syrup, then let it cool down, then repeat the process every day for several days (or was it weeks :-\, which would explain why the stuff you buy is so expensive?). Anyway, I gave up after a few days :-[.
not tried it here either jenny, but when I was making pumpkin preserve the advice was to add sugar and leave pumpkin cubes overnight. The sugar pulled out the water, and the pieces were solid after, so I'm sure they would have responded to candying without falling apart?
perhaps valmarg's post on marrons glaces might be relevant ::)
good luck! ;D
Thanks for replies folks - have done and regularly do candy lemon peel, it's a great favourite with my nephews, and did angelica for the first time this year, which again worked ok but didn't last very long as it got eaten like sweets! Will have a go with orange peel Christmas this year - there's a thought Dandelion, don't give up ;D
Think I might end up doing it three ways at once:
Try cooking it first, then doing the syrup thing daily (I am a little afraid it may break up before the syrup session)
Try just cooking it in the syrup and then increasing the syrup sugar daily(the worry here is that the syrup will make it tough before it's softened by the heat)
Try doing it in dry sugar, as the water released may be enough to form the syrup, and then do a final boil at the end (but will this be soft enough?)
Anyway will be fun and I've got enough to experiment with, storage is "A la supersprout" (i.e. up the stairs ;D - what a brilliant idea) and as for time, well Tim it'll overlap with the jam making I guess!