The Citrus Season

I'm not gonna lie. I'm not a winter person. Just like I'm not a morning person. I wish I could be a bear, so I could just sleep through it.



One of the few good things about this winter is the abundance of citrus -- I'm not exactly sure why, as I think oranges are mainly spring fruits (at least from the limited research I did), but I'm not complaining.



My favorite citrus is probably the honey tangerine; I can't resist its oh-so-sweet tartness. Last week I had the joy of experiencing the sweetest, juiciest red ruby grapefruit I've ever had in my life. I've also had some beautiful -- but sour and dry -- Moro oranges (pictured), run-of-the-mill Navels, bright Cara Caras (also pictured), and Minneolas that have had the most wonderful scent on their peels and whose flesh was juicy, but not very sweet.



For the first time, I attempted to make candied orange (and lime) peels and homemade marmalade. Neither went very well, unfortunately. The candied peels were OK, but I made the mistake of slicing them too thin. The marmalade was a disaster. Practically every recipe I found online for marmalade used the Seville orange, which seems like the only variety of orange I haven't seen this season. I tried to use Moro oranges (since they didn't taste very good, I thought they might make a gorgeous-looking marmalade) and some other type, possibly Navel, and less sugar (seriously, making marmalade uses an appalling amount of sugar -- necessary, as it turns out, because all the peel and pith makes the mixture very bitter). The result was a bitter, goopy mass that didn't resemble lovely orange preserves at all. Oh, the other problem was that the oranges I used didn't have many pips (until last week, I didn't know that was what you called orange seeds), which meant that there wasn't a whole lot of natural gelatin, and I didn't have the powdered kind. So, all in all, one of my more disastrous attempts. I had a lot of fun though, and learned a lot, and plan to try again someday -- maybe when I find Seville oranges.

I have some shots of the attempt at candied citrus peels, which I think would have gone much better had I not sliced them too thinly. It took a really, really long time from the pithing to the slicing to the coating each strand with sugar afterward, so when I attempt this again I'm definitely going to err on the side of thick slices!

The citrus I used:



Sectioning off the peels:



Using a paring knife to get as much pith off as possible:



Gorgeous de-pithed peels:



Thinly sliced and into the pot with just water or possibly water and sugar together; can't remember now:



The peels after they've been boiling in sugared water for awhile:



Cooling on a rack after they've been dusted with sugar:

Caramel Catastrophe?

An optional element for November's Daring Bakers challenge was caramels. I love soft, chewy caramels, and so many people had raved about these ones from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert.



I drove out of my way to Whole Foods in order to buy golden syrup -- which was nearly $5 for an 11oz jar. I stocked up on heavy cream. I had visions in my head of passing these out for Christmas, and everyone marveling at how delicious homemade caramels were. But I attempted two batches, both following the directions precisely, and both times they turned into toffee, not soft, chewy caramel. :(

I don't know what I did wrong. All I know is that I used two different candy thermometers, and it was a struggle just to get it to read 220°F, much less the 265°F the recipe asks for. The first time, I cranked up the heat so high that the caramel ended up burning (the bottom of my Dutch oven is still scorched). The second time, armed with a new thermometer and resolving to be more patient, I kept it on a moderate heat but let it cook for longer. (The instructions give NO estimated times whatsoever, which I find to be extremely unhelpful.) Even so, at the 20-30 minute mark, I started to get anxious because the caramel was deepening in color but the temperature still hadn't gotten much above 220°F. I finally decided that rather than repeat the burnt mistake of the first batch, I'd risk undercooking this one. When it cooled, however, it was far from undercooked. It was solid as a rock once more. And yet, I never even got it up to the appropriate temperature!

So, I don't know what's going on. Other DBs had similar problems, and were just as frustrated with the experience as I was. Others, who are more familiar with making candy (I'm a novice), said they didn't use thermometers at all and just went with their instincts, and they got soft, chewy caramels. Grrr. I do still have two jars of golden syrup left, so maybe one day, when I'm not so irritated with the experience, I'll try it again and ignore the temperatures entirely.

The good news is that it's really delicious toffee. I couldn't cut them up nicely, so I have a bunch of uneven pieces wrapped in wax paper, but if you ignore how they look and just focus on how they taste, it's not disappointing at all.