Chocolate and orange has forever been a flavor combination that my dad and I adore.
He would pick me up from middle school on the back of his Harley Davidson (let me be clear that this was the one and only way I was EVER considered cool in school), we would get home and he would have my after school snack waiting for me: one of those chocolate candies that was in the shape of an orange. You would slam it on the table top to break it into those sweet milk chocolate citrus segments, and we would promptly devour the entire thing roughly 1 hour before dinner.
When I got older and began baking and cooking more independently, I added orange zest into almost all of my chocolate baked goods. Brownies, cookies, hot fudge sauce. You get it. Fast forward about 10 years and enter my good friend from college, Malvina. The saucy woman who walked into my life with a box of chocolate dipped candied orange peel. I don’t think in my lifetime I will ever be able to properly thank her.
If you have never had the chance to try this absolutely beautiful treat, it is sweet, zesty, and rich orange, dipped in smooth sumptuous dark chocolate.
Anyone else think it’s getting warm in here?…
You will need:
4 oranges
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
4 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate (I love Valrhona. I would dip everything in it if I could)
2 tsp. instant espresso
Psssst… remember the oranges from my Citrus Sticky Toffee Pudding? This would be a good time to use those peels. Up to you. I’m not your mother.
Cut off the ends of your oranges, and slice the peel into 1/2 inch strips. They will remove from the orange very easily, and do not fret that you’re taking the pith with it.
Place your peels into a pot of cold water. Bring this to a boil, let cook for 5 minutes, drain, and repeat the cold water/boil process 3 more times.
Your orange peels after this process will be more uniform in color, and the pith (the white part just underneath the bright orange skin) will seem more transparent.
Drain the peels and set aside.
In the same pot, cook together the sugar and water just until the sugar dissolves. Add in the drained orange peels and cook this together on a very low simmer for about 1 hour. Your peels should be almost translucent and the syrup should be mostly absorbed.
Set the orange peels on a drying rack and let dry completely, which be forewarned, could take a full 24 hours. Worth. Every. Moment.
Also, that orange flavored syrup leftover…yeah you should probably use that to rim a cocktail with sugar. At least that’s what I did.
When the peels are dry, chop the bittersweet chocolate into small uniform chunks. Melt over a double boiler with the espresso powder. When there are a few tiny pieces of chocolate left, take the chocolate off the heat and stir the chocolate until it is shiny and smooth.
Dip each candied orange peel into the chocolate. I showed some of the orange peel for contrast. I wouldn’t think any less of you if you dropped all those bad boys head first into a chocolate bath and never looked back.
Hello, gorgeous.
Serve alongside a hot cup of coffee, and find joy in the fact that your life is now just a little better.
Give these as a gift in a cellophane bag with ribbon, serve for your in-laws, or hide them in a box next to your bed.