An easy recipe for homemade Blood Orange Simple Syrup that adds a great citrus and perfectly balanced sweet flavor to any drink!
- Using a peeler, peel the zest from the blood oranges.
- Cut the blood oranges in half and juice them into a small sauce pot. Discard the remaining bits of blood orange.
- Into that same sauce pot, add the water and sugar and stir to dissolve.
- Heat the mixture on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until it starts to simmer.
- Once simmering, carefully add the blood orange zest to the pot and gently stir to submerge. Cook the zest in the liquid for 1 minute at a medium heat so that the liquid is simmering but not at a rapid boil.
- After 1 minute, turn off the heat and allow the zest to sit in the liquid for at least 15 minutes to finish softening and infusing flavors.
- After it's been sitting, strain the zest and chill the simple syrup. Once chilled you're ready to use it!
Optional: Candied Zest (for cocktails rim)
- After you've strained out the zest and chilled the simple syrup, put the remaining granulated sugar into a bowl and add the zest to the bowl, tossing the zest in the sugar to completely coat it.
- Preheat your oven to 200 F and coat a sheet tray or baking pan with parchment paper and spray with pan spray.
- Lay the zest with the remaining sugar out on the sheet tray and bake for 30 minutes at 200 F.
- After 30 minutes, remove the zest from the oven, break up the zest and lay it back out on the sheet tray in a nice even layer. Bake for another 20-40 minutes until the zest is completely dry.
- Once completely dry, remove the zest from the oven and allow the zest to cool to room temperature.
- Once cooled, remove the zest from the sheet tray, add the salt, and pulse in a coffee grinder till it resembles ground coffee in texture.
- Store in a dry air-tight container till usage.
