Round two of Mandarin Kumquat Battle: Will the fruit survive?
I bought two more Mandarin Kumquats today (be scared little fruit...), and made a second attempt at candying them. After slicing them, I cooked them in a sugar syrup (1/3 water to 2/3 sugar). I was trying to reach a hard crack stage, but only made it to soft ball. This means that the candied kumquat is softer than I originally planned. I did not continue to cook it because the sugar syrup was beginning to color (see earlier "color" issue). In fact, as I placed the slices onto the rack the remaining syrup began to turn brown. The candy itself has a lovely flavor with no bitterness. The peel is chewy, but not unpleasantly tough. My only mistake was to put the candy on wax paper instead of my silpat baking sheet. The paper sticks to the soft slices.