Candied Fruit

Candied fruit prevents fruit from spoiling – and tastes good too!

Candied fruits are food items, in particular fruit, that have been preserved by a sweetener, usually sugar.
‘Candied fruit’ is also known as ‘crystallised fruit’, ‘frosted fruit’, ‘glacé fruit’ and ‘glazed fruit’, although the candying processes may vary among the terms.
Candied fruit is typically candied by letting fresh or rehydrated fruit boil, and then sit in sugar syrup, and the sugar content of the syrup is gradually increased each day.
Candied fruit can take from a few days to many months to become completely candied, and dried fruit will achieve this outcome faster.
The candied fruit method causes the water to be extracted from the fruit and replaced with sugar, and this creates a type of pressure that repels some microorganisms that helps to preserve the fruit.

Cherries are the most commonly candied fruit, and other fruits include oranges and their peel, mandarins, figs, melons, and pineapples, and lemon peels, chestnuts and ginger are also often candied.
Candied fruit is typically sold and stored in airtight containers, so moisture cannot spoil the fruit, and it is popularly used in desserts and baked goods, most notably in fruitcake.
Candied fruit is said to have originated from the Middle Eastern Arabs, as an important banquet food, which spread into Europe most likely in the 1500s.
Of all candied fruits, limes are one of the most difficult to successfully candy due to the chemicals in the rind, and usually the process is only achieved in commercial settings.
Candied fruit is approximately 80% sugar, and usually contains small amounts of fibre and manganese.

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