These White Chocolate Candied Lemon Slices are almost too pretty to eat – except you’d be missing out if you passed on this dessert. The lemons are candied in a sugar syrup, then dipped in melted white chocolate and have edible rose petals as a garnish. Plus they’re gluten free! Impress your friends and relatives with this recipe at your next gathering.
These babies. They are stunners. Not only do they look gorgeous, but they are just the right amount of sweet and tart at the same time. If you have some guests you want to impress, put these White Chocolate Candied Lemon Slices in front of them.
When first testing this recipe, I attempted to make a version of my Cranberry Orange Dark Chocolate Bark, but with candied lemon slices, rose petals and food coloring for the chocolate. Kind of a cross between this Sunset Bark and this Mother’s Day Chocolate Bark (which are both gorgeous recipes and would be lovely).
However the lemon slices didn’t break apart well with the chocolate and my coloring made the bark look like ham. As in, someone had a ham sandwich and pointed out “hey, that bark is the same color as my meat!” That was depressing, and the end of that experiment.
So I went a different direction and dipped the candied lemon in the chocolate and that was it. The key to success.
Tips & Tricks for This Recipe
– I used this recipe as guidance for candying the lemon, but found that it needed a longer cooking time to achieve the look I wanted. After you’re done with this step, KEEP THE SYRUP! It’s great for other uses, like pouring onto pancakes or over a pound cake. Or you can use it in my Sparkling Citrus Mocktail recipe.
– Unless you put the white chocolate in a tall drinking glass, which I guess you could do but it seems weird, you’ll probably be dipping them into a somewhat flat bowl. This prohibits them being just dunked straight down into the chocolate. I found that kind of gliding them in on their side works best – sort of like how someone dives into a pool. But slower, with less splashing and much less chlorine.
– You will have leftover chocolate after dipping the lemon, because it’d be too hard to only have just enough for dipping once you got to the last lemon slices. You’d basically have to mop the bowl with the lemon and that’d be a pain. If you’re unsure what to do with the remaining chocolate, just take a flat plate or dish, line it with parchment, and spread the chocolate with a spatula to make a small piece of chocolate bark. Put whatever you have on hand onto it (dried fruit pieces, chopped up nuts, dark or milk chocolate chips, etc). Or you could also lick it out of the bowl as part of your lunch. No judgement here.
– When making this recipe I used edible rose petal pieces that I bought on Amazon. I measured out about a quarter cup, then crumbled them up a bit to make them smaller. If you use something like sprinkles, you would use less since they are more dense. If you’re going to use glitter or luster dust, I would just lightly tap it over the chocolate so the lemon slices don’t end up looking like a disco ball that got cut in half.
– The prep and cook time on this recipe do not include the time needed for the candied lemon to cool, or the lemon and chocolate to harden in the fridge. It is definitely possible to make this recipe in one day, but if you’re making it for a specific gathering I would suggest candying the lemons the night before, then dipping them in chocolate in the morning and setting them in the fridge until you’re ready put them out.
Still in need of some dessert ideas? Try these on for size:
– Crustless Banana Cream Pie Cups (one of my most popular recipes!)
– Cranberry Orange Dark Chocolate Bark
– Raspberry Peach Nice Cream
– Simple Summer Berry Paleo Parfait
– Gluten Free Blueberry Peach Crisp
If you make this recipe, tell me in the comments! I’d love to hear how it turned out. I’m betting you get some “wow, that’s so pretty!” with a few “ohh, these are good” tossed in.
You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more good to eat, gluten free food and how I’m trying to get my kids into the kitchen more.
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Recipe for White Chocolate Candied Lemon Slices
White Chocolate Candied Lemon Slices
Ingredients
For the Candied Lemon:
- 3 lemons
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup water
For Dipping:
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- garnish edible flowers, sprinkles, glitter dust, etc
Instructions
Items Needed:
- A sharp knife
- A cutting board
- A large pan
- A spatula
- A sheet pan
- Wax paper or a silicone mat
- A medium pot
- A heat-safe medium bowl
- A potholder or oven mitt
Directions:
For the Candied Lemon:
- Using a sharp knife and a cutting board, slice two of the lemons into thin slices, no bigger than ⅛ inch thick. Do not slice them in half yet! That comes right before dipping. Just set them aside.
- In a large pan over medium heat, combine the sugar and water. Juice the third lemon and add it to the pan, stirring with spatula until sugar is dissolved.
- Place lemon slices in the pan, being careful not to overlap them so they cook evenly.
- Let the slices simmer, flipping them over every 4 to 5 minutes, until the rind is soft and the flesh of the lemon appears glassy and transparent. Depending on how thick your lemon slices are, this could take 15 to 25 minutes.
- As lemon slices are cooking, take out a sheet pan and line it with wax paper or a silicone mat.
- Once lemon slices are done, place each slice on the lined sheet pan, making sure none of the slices are touching.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
For Dipping:
- Take the lemons out of the fridge and using a sharp knife and cutting board, slice them in half. Place them back in the fridge so they don’t warm up too much as you heat the chocolate.
- Put whatever decoration you’re using on your counter, or wherever you’re working, so it’s easily accessible.
- Pour about an inch of water in a medium pot on the stove and turn heat to medium. Heat until water is nearly boiling, but not quite.
- Place chocolate chips in heat-safe medium-sized bowl.
- Put bowl over pot to create a double boiler. You can also place bowl in the water, just make sure no water splashes into the chocolate.
- With a spatula, stir the chocolate as it melts, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so no chocolate burns. You will need to continuously stir the chocolate – don’t step away as this will only take a couple minutes.
- Once all the chocolate is melted, take the bowl out of the pot using a potholder or oven mitt.
- Take the lemon slices out of the fridge. Pick up one of the candied lemon slices with your fingers or a pair of tongs and dip it into the chocolate, leaving about a quarter of the lemon untouched by chocolate. If you have a shallow bowl you will likely need to slowly slide the lemon into the chocolate on its side, in a similar motion to how a person dives into a pool.
- Carefully place the dipped lemon slice back onto the lined sheet pan. Repeat the process for 6 or so lemons slices at a time. Once you’ve done a small batch, garnish them by dusting them with flowers, sprinkles, or other decoration. You don’t want to wait and decorate all the lemon slices at once because you want the chocolate to still be warm so the decoration can cling to it.
- Repeat the last step for the last of the lemon slices, doing it in batches.
- Once all slices are dipped and decorated, place them back in the fridge to harden for at least 15 minutes but longer is better.
- Keep slices in the fridge until just before serving, as the chocolate will start to melt quickly once it is out of the fridge.
Alexandra @ It's Not Complicated Recipes
This sounds amazing! So unique – I cannot wait to try! I love lemon and white chocolate – and these are so pretty!
Kat
Is there a reason you cut them into half moons after candying them instead of just candying them already sliced?
Taryn Solie
I think they hold up better during the candying process when they’re whole slices, but you could cut them in half before candying them if you’d like.