Try to guess how and where in the world candied fruits appeared?
Of course, where it is always warm, and even hot, where fruit abundance reigns almost all year round, and canning and freezing fruit in jars is the achievement of the last two centuries.
Yes, only in the East so long and always love fruits and sweets.
Here, in fact, is the entire brief history of the emergence of one of the oldest types of sweets.
It only remains to add to this that the “dry jam” was known to our ancestors in the fourteenth century, and it was a favorite delicacy of Catherine II who awarded the sweetness with a separate royal decree ordered to serve her “dry jam” to the table.
Nowadays, the possibilities and methods of canning fruits have expanded significantly, but candied fruits remain the same addition to desserts, and, at the same time, their bright decoration.
Therefore, the question of cooking pumpkin candies at home, as well as other candied fruits and berries, still remains relevant.
Moreover, housewives who prefer homemade cakes, know how difficult it is to find fresh candied fruits with bright authentic taste. That is, to buy candied fruits is not a problem, and they will be very bright and quite candied, but here it often happens that the smell is peculiar to an orange or kiwi, or other fruits indicated on the label in them, just is not enough.
Candied pumpkin at home - the basic technological principles
It is not difficult to guess that if “dry jam” was prepared in the fourteenth century, without modern capabilities, then this canning technology is quite accessible to modern housewives.
What is needed for this? Prepare fruits or berries, sugar and finish reading the article to the end in detail, using the example of candied pumpkin at home, to get acquainted with the technology of making ancient sweets. In addition to pumpkin, you need a basic preservative - sugar. As an alternative to sugar, you can use honey or even fructose, which allows you to enjoy a sweet dessert, even for people who are strictly prohibited, for medical reasons, the use of sugar.
The preservation process in candied fruits occurs by increasing the sugar concentration to 80% and reducing the moisture content in fruits to 15%.
The whole technology of candied fruit is reduced to boiling candied fruit in sugar syrup, with or without the addition of fragrant ingredients. Cooking takes place in 2-3 stages, briefly: up to 5 minutes. After that, the candied fruits are extracted from the syrup and dried until sugar crystals form on the surface of the candied fruit.
Pumpkin has a slightly peculiar taste, which not everyone likes. Given this, you can disguise the taste and smell of pumpkin oranges or any citrus fruits, pineapple, apples. Just harmoniously complement the taste and aroma of pumpkin, some spicy herbs and spices. The smell of caramel pumpkin baked with sugar in the oven is very pleasant.
Ready candied fruits can be stored for a long time, in tightly closed containers, eliminating the access of moisture and odors. At the place of storage, the air temperature should not exceed that at which sugar is melted. Containers with candied fruits should not be transparent.
Such blanks make it possible to make a dessert or homemade pastry not only healthy, but also bright, appetizing.
Boiling fruit in a concentrated sugar syrup allows you to preserve the taste and smell of fresh fruit, which distinguishes home-made candied fruit from industrial preparations.
For each method of making candied pumpkin at home, there is a general principle: before sugaring, the pumpkin is washed and peeled from the skin and seeds, and then cut into cubes, cubes. Also curly cutting methods are possible, but the pieces should not be too thick so that the wilting takes place faster and the candied fruits have the same structure inside and outside.
Recipe 1. Candied pumpkin at home with orange juice and honey
Ingredients:
Oranges 0.7 kg
Sugar 2.1 kg
Pumpkin (net weight) 1.4 kg
Cooking:
Remove the rind from the washed oranges, chop them arbitrarily and place them in a non-stick pan with the pieces of pumpkin. Pour the fruit with sugar and leave it to stand out: you can mix it, but gently, so as not to mash it.
On low heat, dissolve the sugar in the juice and bring the syrup to a boil, remove the dishes from the heat. When it cools down to 50ºC, boil it again for about 5 minutes, while at the same time trying to heat the container only from this side, removing the foam that forms.
Repeat the operation until you get a syrup that will drag on a thick, transparent thread.
Put the candied fruit in a metal sieve or colander, leaving the container over the canopy to drain the syrup. The drying time of candied pumpkin at home will depend on the humidity of the room and the air temperature.
You can speed up the drying using the oven. Cover the baking sheet with foil, put the candied fruit on it and dry them at 40ºC until sugar crystals form on the surface.
Recipe 2. Candied pumpkin at home in apple juice
Ingredients:
Apple juice, natural (with pulp) 0.5 l
Cinnamon 1 stick
Brown sugar 500 g
Pumpkin pulp 1 kg
Cooking:
Dissolve the sugar in the apple juice and put the prepared pumpkin slices into the hot mass for 24 hours, along with a cinnamon stick. Boil the mass for five minutes and set aside until the next day. Repeat until syrup thickens. Dry the candied fruit as described in the previous method.
Recipe 3. Candied pumpkin at home with pineapple and kiwi
Ingredients:
Pineapple, Pumpkin and Kiwi Cubes
Sugar
Cooking:
Peeled fruits should be taken in equal quantities (1: 1: 1). The amount of sugar should be the total weight of all fruits together: 3 parts. Prepared fruit and pumpkin, fold in non-stick dishes, sprinkling each layer of sugar. Wait for the fruit to release the juice and cook, removing the foam, until the syrup is ready, in several stages. Bring the mass to a boil, cool it to 50ºC, then reheat again. Readiness is checked by breaking the syrup “on a thick string”. Remove the cubes from the syrup, spread on the grid and dry. To speed up the drying process, you can use the oven, heated to 40-50ºC.
Recipe 4. Candied pumpkin at home with lemon juice and mint
Ingredients:
Mint infusion 250 ml
Sugar 300 g
Lemon juice, fresh 200 ml
Pumpkin cubes 1.0 kg
Honey 450g
Cooking:
From sugar, mint infusion, honey and juice cook syrup. Put the pumpkin into the prepared syrup, bring to a boil and remove the heat. Boil pumpkin in this way should be up to the moment when it becomes transparent. Remove cubes from their syrup and dry.
Recipe 5. Candied pumpkin at home with cranberry juice
Ingredients:
Cranberry Juice 250 ml
Sugar 750 ml
Pumpkin pulp 1 kg
Cooking:
Cut the pumpkin pulp, slightly boil it and let it drain. Prepare syrup from sugar and cranberry juice. In the finished syrup, boil the pumpkin slices in several stages. When the pumpkin becomes transparent, strain. It is best to remove the syrup with a grill with small holes and an installed tray for draining the syrup.
Recipe 6. Candied pumpkin at home in cherry liqueur and chocolate icing
Candied fruits are an excellent product for making homemade sweets. Try a delicious dessert.
Ingredients:
Liquor, cherry 0.5 l
Pumpkin Pulp 700-800 g
Chocolate icing 350 g
Sugar 1.5 kg
Cooking:
Pumpkin pulp to soft boil in sweetened water with the addition of vanilla. Drop in a colander and dry.
Use water to make liqueur and sugar syrup. Boil down the syrup to a viscous consistency. For the preparation of dessert, use the tools and devices for cutting vegetables in the form, so that candied chocolate candies are not only tasty, but also attractive in appearance.
Prepared slices dip in syrup and boil them, bringing to a boil several times, and then let drain the syrup and dry, as is usually done candied. R
Put cold, candied pumpkin figurines in one row on a dish covered with foil and pour them with melted, but not too hot, chocolate icing.
Cool it so that the chocolate hardens. Put the chocolates on another dish, collect the remnants of chocolate from the foil and melt them again. The bottom of candied fruit, not covered with icing, dip in warm melted chocolate and spread on a dish, turning the candy.
Again, hold them in the cold until they freeze and put them on a platter for serving.
Candied pumpkin at home - tips and tricks
- Properly prepared and dried candied fruits do not stick to their hands and should not be viscous in their mouths in consistency.
- The syrup remaining after cooking candied fruit, pour into a sterile container and use as needed for sweet sauces, desserts.
- To make pumpkin pumpkin soaked with syrup well, pre-steam them and dry.
- Jam can be used to make candied fruit. It is enough to extract the fruit from it and dry them.
- Syrup after cooking candied fruit can be used to prepare the next portion of candied fruit.
- You can speed up the process of drying candied fruit using the oven. Ideally, a stove with an integrated ventilation system is suitable for this purpose. If you use an ordinary oven for this purpose, then heating it, leave the door open. Drain the candied fruit in the oven without a fan in several stages: preheating the oven to 50ºC, turn it off, and then after cooling, reheat to the specified temperature.
- Frozen fruits can also be used to make candied fruits.
- To cook delicious pumpkin candies, you need to seriously approach the question of choosing the right variety, on which the taste of the delicacy will depend. Variety pumpkin variety - a separate issue, and not all of its varieties are used in cooking. This should be remembered. To choose the best pumpkin, go to the market: you can choose the best vegetable-berry from good and talkative old women, having previously tasted it. This kind of service for old women is always at their best: they often sell pumpkin not only peeled, but also cut into pieces, which significantly reduces the time spent on making pumpkin candies at home. But at the same time, do not forget that the size of the thread should meet the technological requirements of making candied fruit: too large and thick pieces will dry for a long time, and correcting the work of grandmothers is not advisable - it is better to choose a whole vegetable and cut it yourself.
- It can be very difficult to remove the peel from a pumpkin, especially when it has become stiff. To facilitate the task by resorting to heating. Divide the vegetable into portions of the desired size / weight and place it for a minute in the microwave, or heat it in the oven. After such a procedure, any unyielding rind will be removed by an ordinary peeler.
