Home made candied lemon peel is very easy to make, and a great way to use up left over lemon rinds. It also tastes better than shop bought, and you can cut the peel to just how you like it.

This batch was made from the peel left over from making lemon cordial, but you could easily freeze single lemons until you had enough.

The recipe is the same as for making candied mixed peel.

  See here for the candied lemon peel recipe in detail.

Recipe Costs

£0.00 left over peel from 5 lemons
£0.00 625ml water (approx)
£0.60 625g granulated sugar (approx)

£0.60 Total

£1.20 per kg of peel (half the cost of basic candied peel at tesco, although it would be about twice the price if you had to buy the lemons specially)

The lemons are first scrubbed and then brought to the boil for ten minutes. This process is then repeated another two times, before the peel is rinsed in cold water.

The membranes and pithy white part of the lemon is scraped away, although it's nearly impossible to remove all of it. It's easiest to use the edge of a cheap (and therefore thin) spoon and cup the peel in your hand or press down onto a board.

The lemons are then sliced into strips, a good variety of widths is useful and adds to the home-made feel. The peel has been softened by the repeated boiling, but it helps to use a sharp knife.

The recipe works out the ingredients using a ratio of volumes, which is useful as it accommodates as much peel as is available. Using a measuring cup, work out roughly how much peel you have (in this case two and a half cups)

Then make up a sugar syrup using the same volume of sugar and water as you have peel, so in this case two and a half cups of sugar and two and a half cups of water. Stir the sugar into the water while gently heating until it is all dissolved, then add the peel.

The peel needs simmering for several hours in the syrup until it turns translucent, it needs to be kept on a low heat as to much boiling will reduce the sugar syrup to quickly and turn the whole lot to toffee.
You will be left with several cups full of lemon flavoured syrup, which can be put to good use making lemon syrup cake.
Remove the peel with a slotted spoon and drain on a wire rack.

The peel will need to be dried for quite a length of time, as it is very sticky to begin with, at least overnight if not a full 24 hours.

Once it has stopped looking too glossy toss in a bowl of granulated sugar to stop it sticking together in the jar and then pot into sterilised jars.

Recipe Timings

40 minutes Boiling Lemons
10 minutes Chopping and making syrup
2 hours Simmering
24 hours drying
5 minutes Bottling

Taste Test

Delicious as a snack (very moreish), looks good for decorating cakes and tasty chopped up in fruit cake.