Cool Candied Cucumber

by cluracon

26K784

Intro: Cool Candied Cucumber

Cucumber candied with fresh mint makes a unique garnish for cakes and cocktails, or just a refreshing snack to chew on for your sugar fix.


All you need is half a cucumber, some fresh mint (how much depends entirely on your taste, I use a large handful as I'm a fiend for mint in summer), 1 cup of caster sugar, and 1 cup of water.

  • Finely chop the mint, and slice the cucumber thinly.
  • Put the sugar and water in a large saucepan and heat until they form a clear syrup. Turn the heat down low and throw in the chopped mint.
  • Place the cucumber slices in the saucepan and poach for about 20 minutes. Try not to let the slices overlap too much in the pan (you'll probably need to poach them in two batches).
  • Fish the cucumber out of the syrup and lay it on a lined baking tray. Put the tray in a low oven, about 90 C (194 F) for and hour and a half to two hours, until mostly dried out (they will remain a bit chewy because of the very high water content of cucumber).

Keep wrapped in baking parchment until needed. The leftover syrup can be kept for use in sweets or cocktails.

5 Comments

dangerine 12 years ago

Pop them into a dehydrator after to pull out the rest of the water and make them crunchy!

AlysiaMakes 12 years ago

How well do they hold up in the heat? I think these would be wonderful to make and gift out at Burning Man.
Thanks for sharing :)

cluracon 12 years ago

Wow, nice idea! Once they've been baked, they dry out to become quite crisp & candy like, but I can only say how well they hold up in an English summer, which at the minute is mostly rain. Can't tell what they'd do in that heat, but you can probably judge by how other candy survives. Good luck x

jessyratfink 12 years ago

These sound amazing! I think I might need to do a batch your cucumbers along with these: https://www.instructables.com/id/Red-Hot-Candied-Chilli-Peppers/ :D