Candied Lime Slices

twissis's Note:

Right after joining RZ, I tried & was not able to find a recipe for candied limes, but Chef Neta kindly helped me find this 1 at the Food Network website. Twice since then questions have come up about candied limes, so I thot I would post the recipe. I modified the prep slightly to make it easier & more clear. I use the slices mainly to garnish lime-based beverages, desserts or baked goods, but also cut in sml pieces to add color & flavor to trail mix or add as a sml item to add variety & color to gift baskets. There are prob many more uses that have not occurred to me. Time does not include the drying time.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 16

Yield: 16.0 slices

• 2 large limes or 3 small limes
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Slice limes into thin rounds, blanch in a pot of boiling water for 2 min & drain.
2. In the same pot, combine water & 1 cup sugar. Bring to a simmer & add lime slices. Simmer for 10-15 min, till white pith of limes looks translucent (May take longer if pith is esp thick or dense).
3. Drain & spread out on a cooling rack to dry for at least 1 hour.
4. Put 2 tbsp sugar in shallow bowl or saucer. When limes are dry, coat both sides of the lime slices by pressing them into the sugar (May need more sugar for good coverage).
5. Store in an airtight container & layer between parchment paper or plastic wrap till ready to use. I freeze these when I make a batch & then just take out what I need to use.

Reviews

[sams1]

Fantastic!
Thanks for posting.

[hoda]

these were very very delicious and yummy.i'm planning to triple the recipe and give some to my friends to enjoy.i removed the zest of the limes with my hand grater, don't like it to be too bitter.

[Perfectionist cook]

I was given some limes recently and decided that candied peel would be a great way of using them. However this recipe gave me a lot of grief. I tripled the recipe using 9 limes and when I blanched them a lot of juice came out in the water. When I boiled them in the sugar syrup, even more came out making them watery and tart. I then put them on a rack to dry but they remained soggy so in despair I threw them back into the pot and boiled them for another half hour with a lot of sugar. This time they candied up properly and I was able to dry them on a rack. However when I tried them., the peel was very tough and hard to chew although the flavour of the inside part was fine if a little bitter. I am not sure what went wrong and didn't want to leave a rating. It could be the limes we have in Greece, the fact that I have never made anything remotely like this before or maybe the cooking time was wrong. Is there something I can do to make the peel softer?