How to avoid having pith on dried orange peels

Question

I am trying to prepare some dried orange peel for a Mexican chocolate bread recipe. From what I've read, the first step is cutting thin strips of outer peel off an orange without getting any pith. I lack the dexterity to yield a paring knife so I used a vegetable grater. Most of the pieces contain some pith:

Is the amount of pith shown negligible, or should I use scissors to snip off and keep the portions without it? Is there a better way to get pith-free orange peels? Can I substitute dried zest? (I have a zester that gets peel without pith.)

Answer 1

Try gently scraping with a spoon or non-serrated knife, if you want to remove more pith. However, that looks pretty good to me. Your recipe for drying has you finely chopping the peel. So, I would say that zest would be just fine as well.