Making Star Shaped Candied Lemon and Orange Out of Leftover Citrus Peels

I am a big fan of using citrus fruits for baking, particularly lemon and orange. They add a nice bit of freshness to any recipe and can really go well with nuts, spices and even chocolate!

And one of the best parts of it is that you get most of the aroma just from just the peels, which are often discarded.

I am here to show you how to turn any leftover peels into gorgeous star-shaped candied bits that not only keep for a long time but that can also be added into doughs, used as decorations or even be eaten as tasty little snacks.

Here´s what you are gonna need:

1. Peels from the citrus fruit of your choice, I personally use lemons and oranges mostly.
2. Sugar, to use as both sweetener and preservative.
3. Star-shaped cookie cutters. Metal ones work best, but you can use plastic ones as well. I even 3D printed my own so I could try out different sizes.
4. Or.... You can bring a twist into the whole matter and use some stationery shape cutters! Yep you heard that right.

As I was experimenting with cutting ever smaller stars it came a point were I noticed that 3D printed parts just couldn´t do the trick anymore. The edge wasnt sharp or precise enough and the tips of the stars kept breaking, and so the shape just wouldn´t come out alright.

And that's when the idea to use a shape cutter came to me, of the same kind which is used to cut paper and EVA foam. I first tried with some of the most common ones, but the slit they have is way too thin, so you can´t really feed the peels into it or see where you are cutting. So then I got my hands in one that has a pincer format, with all the mechanism exposed and gave it a try. Voila! It worked wonders, and soon I had a bunch of tini tiny orange peel stars ready to be candied and mixed into my favourite recipes.

First thing you need to do is to get your hands on some citrus peels.

As you will see soon, you can make a fair amount of stars with just a couple of oranges and a lemon. So it´s not like you need a lot of peels. Just keep it in mind and don´t throw away the peels the next time you are making orange juice or lemonade and you will have enough for a batch.

You can also store them a day or two in a tupperware inside the fridge to maybe accumulate some more until you find the time to process them. But don´t delay it too much or the will turn mushy and go bad.

Once you have accumulated the desired amount you'll want to remove some of the white pith. Unlike lemon zest , where you want as little white as possible, for candied peels you want to keep at least some of the pith to give them a little bit of chew. If they are fairly thin you can leave them as is, and in the case of the thicker ones you can just lay them flat on a board and runa knife horizontally to remove a layer of pith.

Don't try removing the pith directly from large curly strips. Try cutting them into manageable pieces first, make some cuts to release the tension, and once they lay flat proceed to trim the excess pith. .

Once you have all of your peels nice and trimmed its time to ready the cutters. Make sure to clean them thoroughly and desinfect them before starting the process (particularly if you normally use the pincer shape cutter for it´s actual intended purpose).

If you dont have any star-shaped cutters you can always print your own. Below are the STL files to the same cutters you see in the picture.

When all of your cutters are ready you can start cutting out the stars. The 3D printer cutters works just like your average cookie cutter, though it does take a bit more of strength to punch through the rinds as opposed to soft dough.

In the case of the pincer you have to work your way around the edges, and use a knife every now and then to remove the scrap as you go along, My advice is not to try too hard to cut the stars close to each other. It's better to leave a comfortable margin and keep a steady rythm than to stop the flow just to be slightly more efficient.

Now just keep at it untill you are left with a small galaxy of tiny citrus stars ... and a whole lot of scrap!

Next up you need to boil the stars to get rid of the bitterness. Most recipes call for several bathhs discarding the water in between but I personally do only one. I´d rather keep some of the bitterness in and not allow too much of the aromatic oils get washed away.

To do this I bring water to a boil in a pot, enough to cover the peels with room to spare. The pot should be wide enough so the surface doesn´t get too crowded. When the water is boiling I add the star-shaped cutouts and simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring every now and then. The timing isn´t precise because it can vary depending on the heat and how thick the peels are. However, my rule of thumb is that once the peels sink and stay at the bottom then they are ready . You may need to remove it from the fire and stir to check. Because the bubbling keeps sending them up again so It´s hard to judge whether they would stay down on their own if you keep them on the fire.

You can also taste them to see if they are done. You want the bitterness to go away without them becoming too bland and losing the citric scent.

Once they are ready, remove the pot from the fire and throw away all of the cooking water.

The next step is to saturate the peels with sugar, to add sweetness and to act as a preservative.

To do this we will boil the shapes in a thick syrup for a couple of minutes.

Since we don´t want to further dilute the flavours it is important to use as little syrup as posssible. You can estimate the amount needed by addyng just enough sugar to cover the peels and then add water until almost -but not all- of the sugar is disolved.

The rest of the sugar should dissolve only once it starts to heat up. This guarantees a runny but fully saturated syrup that is perfect to cook the peels at, and makes it easy to strain them out later on .

They peels shouls simmer gently for about 10 minutes, or until they develop the shiny translucent look that you see in the picture. Then turn off the heat and set aside.

Now just make sure they cool a bit before going in for a taste!

Your candied citrus stars are ready to be used!

They are great for decorating cakes, for adding intto doughs or even putting into some homemade marmelade for a very eye-catching jar of space jam.

As for storage, they should keep for some weeks if fully submerged in the syrup and kept in the fridge inside an airtight container. The best way to extend their shelf life however would be to pour the syrup and the candied stars while they are still hot into previously sterilized glass jars, and then putting on the lids and keeping it sealed right up untill is time to use them.

Another option is to completely drain away the syrup and then toss the stars into some sugar to let it absorb the excess moisture. This way you can even keep them outside the fridge once they´ve dried enough.

Now its time for you to make your own! Not only are they tasty and full of citus flavour, but they can turn any cake into an art piece within minutes.

As you see in the pictures, you need only take a plain looking cake, mix together some confectioner sugar and lemon juice to make a quick glaze, pour it over the cake, add the citrus stars on top and the results are dazzling!

You can also mix them into the dough of the cake or maybe even sprinkle them over ice cream. There is a whole universe of possibilities and I cant wait to see what you all can come up with.

Thanks for reading my Instructable! It´s time to start making some galaxy cakes!