mix, mix…stir, stir

On my birthday I love to indulge in experimental baking knowing full well that it might not result in anything fit to serve. For me it’s more about the process than the end result, so it works out just fine even if I make a dud. This year was a success, almost.

For some reason I have been fixated on dragon fruit lately. I tasted it for the first time last summer while in Hong Kong, and it was delicious but also stunningly beautiful. I decided to create the dragon fruit look in a citrus chiffon cake using poppy seeds.  I have also had grapefruit on my mind and stumbled across  Brown Derby Grapefruit Cake with Grapefruit-Cream Cheese Frosting in Gale Gand’s book Butter Sugar Flour Eggs.

This was all the inspiration I needed to get working on my birthday creation; a citrus poppy seed chiffon cake with grapefruit curd filling, cream cheese frosting, and candied grapefruit peel. Over all a success, but not quite perfected enough to post the recipe yet. It was too sweet and the grapefruit curd was too soft.  I will re-work my formulations and post the recipe as soon as I get the kinks worked out and the sweetness toned down.

The candied grapefruit rind turned out beautifully. I only wish I had figured out how I planned to use the rind before starting because I would have cut it much more uniformly. It was chewy and sweet, but with the distinctive grapefruit tartness that is a bit numbing in the mouth.

Candied Grapefruit Rind

This recipe is adapted from Kate Zuckerman’s method for candying citrus rind in The Sweet Life.

Slice the peel from a grapefruit retaining the white part of the peel. Slice into strips about 1/4″ wide or small squares.

Place rind in pan of boiling water for about 1 minute, strain, and then rinse with cold water. Repeat, boiling for another minute in fresh water, strain, and rinse with cold water. Repeat a third time again with fresh boiling water. This triple blanching removes the bitter flavors from the rind.

In a medium sauce pan, dissolve 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons corn syrup in 1/3 cup water. Add the grapefruit rind and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Pre heat the oven to 325 degrees F and line a sheet pan with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Once the rind has finished simmering, scoop it from the poaching syrup and lay it out on the lined sheet pan. Bake for 10 about minutes. It should be very bubbly.

Remove the pieces of rind from the hot pan onto a cooling rack, leaving behind any excess syrup that has pooled around the pieces of rind. Cool at room temperature for a few hours or overnight. Toss the pieces of rind in granulated sugar to coat. Store in an airtight container.

The best way to cut candied rind into smaller pieces is with kitchen shears.