Candied Clementine Granola Bars
I came across this thought to make candied clementine peels and fold them into chewy granola bars, as I was eating clementines one day. I thought it would be a neat, efficient way to use the peels I was about to throw away. I looked online for some recipes and came across this one from Gourmet. It calls for boiling and rinsing the clementine peels twice before candying them; I think this is to get rid of any wax or chemicals on the peel. You will lose some flavor this way (the water I poured down the drain smelled so fragrant!), but I guess better safe than sorry. Clementine peels are easier than regular orange peels to candy, because you can candy the whole thing - no need to separate the white part from orange part.
Candied Clementine Peel
Gourmet | January 2005
Yield: Makes about 1 cup
1 pound clementines (4 to 7)
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups regular granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Vegetable oil for greasing rack
1 cup superfine granulated sugar
- Halve clementines crosswise and juice them with a citrus juicer, reserving juice for another use. Discard any membranes still attached to peel, then cut each half into eighths.
- Bring peel to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan three-fourths full of cold water with 1/2 teaspoon salt and boil, uncovered, 10 minutes, then drain and rinse peel. Repeat procedure with more water and salt, draining and rinsing peel again.
- Bring regular sugar and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add peel and gently simmer, uncovered, until tender and translucent and syrup is thickened, about 1 hour.
- Transfer candied peel with a slotted spoon to a lightly oiled rack set in a shallow baking pan, spreading it out so pieces don't touch, and let drain 30 minutes. If using peel for chocolate tart , reserve 1/2 cup candied peel before coating remainder with sugar.
Coat peel with sugar:
Put superfine sugar in a small bowl and toss peel, a few pieces at a time, in sugar to coat, then transfer with a dry slotted spoon to a sheet of wax paper to dry slightly, about 1 hour.
Cooks' notes:
• Candied peel can be left in syrup and cooled, then chilled, covered, 2 weeks.
• Candied peel tossed with sugar keeps, uncovered, at room temperature 1 day or, chilled between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, 1 month (you may need to recoat with sugar).
After step 3, I just put the whole thing - peels and syrup - into a bowl and let it chill. At the same time as I was looking at how to candy clementine peels, I read about making chewy granola bars from one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. They referred to another favorite website of mine, King Arthur Flour's website, where you can find their own blog. Note that the recipe for this granola bar is not the same as in their Whole Grain Baking cookbook. The cookbook has a more complicated version where you first make your own granola, mixing and baking and all, then make the granola bar out of it. This version is much simpler since there's only one mixing and one baking step.
I'll let you look at the recipe on their site yourself, since they have a handy feature that switches between measuring the ingredients by weight or by volume. I always measure by weight if possible, since it's a lot easier with no measuring cups to wash. Here's a link to the recipe.
I have to say, I usually don't like fruit flavored granola bars (or fruit flavored baked goods in general), but I loved these granola bars. For my mix-ins I used the clementine peels, sesame seeds, and chopped toasted almonds. The clementine peels and clementine syrup were so clean and fresh-tasting, worlds away from packaged granola bars. They were a perfect counterpoint to rainy Dutch weather.
