Candied fruits enhance cake decoration and vanilla ice cream. They can be incorporated into a custard, brioche or sponge cake.
Candying method consists of replacing the cellular fluid in fruit with sugar. This principle is the phenomenon of osmosis, the passage of water through the cells allowing the sugars to enter the fruit. The so-called "sugaring" operation is repeated every 24 hours. It takes at least a month to get cherries processed this way, up to four months for mandarins. Once, the fruits are candied, they can be kept for several months in their syrup, to prevent them from drying. Last task is a glazing that will give a beautiful shiny appearance to fruits, render them more solid and less sticky.
France is the world's leading producer of candied fruits. Two large production centres share the notoriety, the city of Apt in the Vaucluse and the region of Clermont-Ferrand. Since the 19th century certain families from Marseille have perpetuated the manufacture of candied chestnuts in the purest craftsman tradition. For centuries, the city of Niort has the virtual monopoly on candied angelica. A famous 18th century epicurien, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, indicates that the nuns of Niort invented candied angelica, a subtle luxury treat very popular in bourgeois circles of the time.
This industry supplies small cubes of red, green and yellow candied vegetables to garnish ice creams or cakes. Discover our wide range of candied fruits and show off with candied yuzu peels in your pastries (as decorations or filling), in your sundaes or even with certain fish.
Lemon, orange, amarena cherry, yuzu, chestnut, citron, apricot, angelica - there is something for everyone at MEILLEURduCHEF.com.
