Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Peel

Have you any idea how easy these are to make?  You see them all the time in elegant chocolate shops (I love elegant chocolate shops):  delicious strips of candied orange peel dipped in luxurious dark chocolate.  Having a lot of orange rinds after making the Blood Orange Sorbet, I thought I'd make some to see exactly how difficult they were to do.  They are not only very easy, but they are also extremely easy to eat, especially if you decided that, as fruit, they have to be part of your 5 a day...  the less beautiful ones got chopped up as mixed peel, which tasted far, far nicer than the bought kind.  Next time I'm going to do it with lemon as well, which will really enhance the hot cross buns!   You could make this with left-over peel, or make a fruit salad with the oranges.

Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Peel

Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Peel

3 oranges (or quantity to suit) with reasonably thick skins

1lb/450g sugar

12 floz/ ¾ pt  water

4oz/110g dark (or white) chocolate

When I did this I cut the oranges in halves to squeeze, then scooped out any loose pith.   Otherwise you could score the orange in quarters and peel off the skin, again scraping off loose pith (it is bitter).

Cut the orange into thin strips about ¼”/5mm wide, discarding any chunky sections (plus the label and stalk).  Now you have to blanch the peel by putting it into a large pan and covering it with water.  Bring this to the boil.  When it has come to the boil, discard the water and put fresh cold water into the pan.  Bring the peel to the boil a second time, and then discard the water.   You could stop here, if you wanted the peel to have a little of the classic bitter taste, or go for a third boiling.  Your choice!  Pour the last discard through a sieve to retrieve the oranges. 

Now put the recipe quantity of water and sugar into the pan and bring it to a simmering temperature, stirring so you dissolve all the sugar in the water.  This forms a syrup.  Drop the peels gently into this syrup and simmer for approximately 45 minutes – the peel should go slightly translucent (but doesn’t always, so after about 50 minutes give up!).  Don’t stir the peel, as apparently it crystallises the sugar. 

Drain off the syrup (you could keep it for your next batch, or for soaking fruit to make a fruit cake).  Wanting my peels to be dipped in chocolate, I didn’t roll them in caster sugar, but you could do this before leaving them to dry on a rack. 

Melt the chocolate and dip each peel before placing it on waxed paper to dry.  Store in an airtight tin – if you don’t temper the chocolate it will go matt after a few days.   You can also freeze them, but I haven’t had any that have lasted that long!