A question about a recipe: Dark Chocolate & Candied Orange Tart

I have a question about the recipe "Dark Chocolate & Candied Orange Tart" from RuthD. I seem to be having a bad baking week! I just tried making the candied orange rind per the instructions on this recipe, and they came out hard as rocks, covered with sugar granules. I thought maybe it was because I'd stirred them while they were simmering. So I made another batch, this time just by simmering the peel shreds in a simple syrup. Those came out soft and gooey. I have a feeling the right texture for the tart recipe is somewhere in between. Does someone have a clue as to what I'm doing wrong? Or is one of these two actually right? Thanks so much.