Citrus crunch

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 50 g, you will need:

• 1 3 clementines
• 2 100 g caster sugar
• 3 50 ml water
• Total weight: 450 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
40 min.	40 min.	1 hour 20 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Take 3 clementines, organic if possible.
  Scrub fruit thoroughly, dry them, then with a very sharp knife cut off as much zest as you can.
• 2: The goal is to remove the zest, leaving the white pith on the fruit as far as possible. This pith is responsible for the bitterness.
  Another possible technique is to use a peeler, but it must very be very sharp.
• 3: Continue like this for all the clementines, which you can then use for another recipe, or eat.
• 4: The volume of peel is quite small, but this is normal.
• 5: Put 100 g caster sugar and 50 ml water in a pan, heat to dissolve.
• 6: Then add the clementine peel.
• 7: Reduce over medium heat, until obtaining a thick syrup around the peel.
• 8: Pour peel and syrup onto a rack (or into a chinois or a strainer) to drain them.
• 9: Lay them on a baking sheet, then put in the oven at 130°C or 266°F for about 30 minutes.
  The goal is to dry the peel to make it crunchy, not to cook it any further.
• 10: At the end of 30 minutes, allow to cool, then tip the peel onto your work surface. At this point you can remove any excess sugar.
• 11: Then crush with a rolling pin, more or less finely according to taste.
• 12: You should obtain crumbs, still with a few small pieces, not too fine.
• 13: Keep in an airtight jar.

Remarks

This powder is used on desserts to which you want to give a "lift" (the tang of citrus) and add crunch, like Chaud-froid of grapefruit-pineapple, Fruits with sabayon, or Poelée de petits fruits au sabayon gratiné. But even on a simple ice-cream, the effect is striking.
As it can be prepared in advance and stored, you can prepare several varieties, and powder your desserts with several flavours.
I advise you to use organic fruit, because it's the peel which is used in this recipe, and that's first in line to pick up all the chemical treatments applied to the fruit...

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