Only a person with a sweet tooth knows how difficult it is to get just the perfect dessert with the right balance of flavours, toppings, candied fruits, and so on. But it’s only the additives like chocolate, dry fruits, or candied fruits that enhance the texture and flavour of a dessert. So, it is extremely important to know how to achieve the right balance.
If you are a beginner to using candied fruits or candied peels, this is just the right article for you. The candied fruits not only add vibrant pops of colour but also add sweetness and tartness to your baked product. So, here is everything you should know about candied fruits and peels before you experiment with them and enhance your baking journey.
What are Candied Fruits?
Before you go on a journey of the right to use candied fruits, it is important to know the basic terminologies. Candied fruits are nothing but whole fruits or peels that are slowly simmered in a sugar syrup till they are infused with sweetness. If you want to make candied fruits at home, you can do it in repeated cycles of cooking in sugar syrup while increasing the concentration of sugar every time. Even though the process might seem long and tedious, the result will literally be a sweet fruit.
Which Fruits Should You Choose For Candying?
While you are shortlisting fruits for candying, ensure that fruits can hold their flavour after the sweetening process is done. So, the fruits that have a tarty profile are considered to be the best for candying. For example, cherries, oranges, lemons, and apricots are some of the most widely used options. If you are baking a creamy dessert, you can prefer cherries as they add a natural sweet and zesty flavour profile to the dessert.
Once you have decided on which fruit to candy, the next step is to decide whether you want to go with a whole fruit or chopped fruit. If you want to add to the beauty of the dessert, or you want to enhance the texture of a baked product like cake, cookies, or muffins, you should choose whole fruits. On the other hand, if you want an equal distribution of candied fruit throughout the dessert, like a filling or bread, chopped candied fruits will work better.
Where Can You Use Candied Fruits?
Once you have the knowledge about how to choose fruits for candying and the process, you might want to know the best ways to use candied fruits. Here are some interesting ways you can try.
Fruit Cake: As the name suggests, no fruit cake will be complete without the addition of vibrant candied fruits. You can add candied fruits as well as peels to the batter and then bake the softest and most flavourful fruit cake.
Cookies: Cookies are another popular way of using candied fruits. Be it oatmeal raisin cookies or vanilla biscuits, candied fruits and peels will only enhance your usual cookies.
Toppings: Other than cakes and cookies, you can also add candied fruits as toppings to your desserts, like puddings, mousse, parfaits, etc, to make them more indulgent.