Half candied Kumquats

This is my first time purchasing Kumquats and wanted to do something special with them so after a bit of research I happened upon this recipe by Scrumptious South Africa and here they are...  Half-Candied Kumquats Dipped in Dark Chocolate !!

500 g kumquats, washed

water

2 cups (500 ml) white granulated sugar

a little extra sugar for dredging

a slab of good-quality dark chocolate

The whole process takes quite a while and a couple of days are involved if you're not using an oven to dry them out (which still takes up 12 hours on a low setting) I'm just writing this up front so you know ahead and plan a good time to start this "project"

You can head over to the original recipe here and read the instructions.

I'm just going to break it down as I have in my notes step by step below:

1 - Wash kumquats and slice lengthwise, remove seed (for me sometimes the entire middle/pulp came out and I tried to avoid this but they were quite full of  seed)

2 - Add them to a sauce pan, cover with water and boil for 24 mins or so. Drain kumquats and add back into the pot.

3 - Add three quarters of the sugar called for in the recipe (not 3/4 cup!) and just enough water to cover the fruit, melt the sugar slowly on medium heat heat until dissolved and simmer on low for another 35 minutes.

4 - Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 3 hours.

5- Back on the heat and add the remaining sugar (quarter of the initial amount called for) and stir gently until dissolved into the syrup.

6- Remove from heat, cover and let stand overnight.

Day 2:
7- Drain syrup for 30 minutes in colander, and reserve liquid/syrup for other uses.

8- Arrange fruit cut side up on a parchment lined baking sheet and allow to dry for 2 days in a warm place in your home OR set your oven on the lowest temp (mine was 175 convection with the fan running)  for 12 hours. 

9- Dredge the fruit with white sugar (or not?) I did half and half ..

10 - Melt your dark chocolate on a double boiler and dip the fruit half or fully (depending on your taste) using your finger or a small dipping fork.  Allow the chocolate to set and serve!

There you have it! 500 grams of Kumquats, some sugar and 10 steps later you've got yourself some elegant candied fruit!