Orange Sugar

Ingredients

¼ cup orange juice
1 tsp. dried orange peel or 1 tblsp. fresh orange zest
1 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 200.

In a small pan over medium heat, simmer orange juice and zest. Cook down until the mixture measure one tablespoon.

In a stand mixer, on a medium speed add sugar and a few drops of the orange juice reduction at a time. From here you can get creative. Using molds, ice cube trays or, as I did, shape into a rectangular disk about a fourth of an inch thick and place on a  cookie sheet, cutting into cubes and gently spreading out to about two inches apart. Bake for at least 15 minutes.** Allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container.

**I GENTLY flipped my sugar cubes after about 13 minutes so that the bottom of the cube was exposed and able to dry more completely, but I did loose a few sugar cubes in this manner. Be very gentle!

Disclaimer: My understanding through learning to can, is that 200 degree cooking kills bacteria and that sugar is a preserver in any event. So long as the cubes are thoroughly dried out I can't foresee the cubes going bad. Sugar and dehydrated orange juice seems like it should have a healthy shelf life. I'm keeping a few cubes in my cupboard to see if anything goes amiss with them. I'll update this post when I have a conclusion. If you're leery store the cubes in the freezer. 🙂

Recipe Credit: Cherry Tea Cakes