How to make your own candied cherries and pineapple

Years ago, I made my own candied fruit for some fruitcakes I wanted to bake as kitchen gifts.  Does anyone else remember Farm Journal cookbooks?  They were some of my favorites.  As I've mentioned before, I think that these delightful books were sort of the precursor of Taste of Home magazine.  They were well done; there was a Farm Journal Test Kitchen and so on.  But there were chatty comments accompanying many of the recipes, detailing where the recipes came from or a bit of their history.  My mother and I both loved these books, and we owned many.

The Farm Journal Country Cookbook is where I found this recipe, in a chapter on Country Cakes and Frostings.  A special section within the chapter talks about Surprisingly Different Fruitcakes.  Oh, I can't help myself -- I am going to have to give you a taste of the prose that introduces this section:

""Many women treasure their mothers' and grandmothers' fruitcake recipes and fondly dream, when the first thoughts of the Christmas holidays arrive, of baking these old-fashioned loaves.  One look at the recipes, yellow with age, reminds them of the giant-size yields and the time required to bake these cakes.  The search for tasty substitutions starts.  This annual post-Thanksgiving kitchen drama inspired us to offer you smaller and simpler recipes that yield big dividends in taste."

The candied fruit directions are from a recipe called Last-Minute Fruitcakes.  I remember them as being very good, so I will share the recipe later this month.  But for now, I will share the fruit recipe.

CANDIED PINEAPPLE AND CHERRIES
 2 20-ounce cans of sliced pineapple (for this you want the kind that's packed in syrup, not juice)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 2/3 cups syrup drained from pineapple
3 8-ounce jars maraschino cherries, well drained

Drain the pineapple, reserving the syrup.  You will need 1 2/3 cup.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and pineapple syrup in a heavy 10-inch skillet.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.  Cook until temperature reaches 234º on a candy thermometer.

Add a third of the pineapple slices; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer 25 minutes or until pineapple is transparent around edges.  Remove from skillet with slotted spoon and place pineapple on a wire rack set over waxed paper.  Repeat with remaining pineapple, cooking a third of the slices each time.

Then add the drained maraschino cherries to the skillet.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.  Again, remove the cherries from the syrup with a slotted spoon and place the candied cherries on a wire rack over waxed paper to drain completely.  Let the candied fruit dry for 24 hours at room temperature before using or storing.