Level: Easy Total Time: 2h 30min + days for infusion/drying
Whenever I pass by a French chocolate boutique, I really need to work on my will power in order not to buy a box of chocolate-covered orange peels. They are my absolute favorite sweet snack! You can get basic versions at the supermarkets, but they have a tendency to taste more sugar than orange. The ones from the chocolate makers are usually much more qualitative, but they are also far more expensive.
In November we received our order of 10kg of oranges directly from the producer (through CrowdFarming) and we cumulated a huge amount of peels every day. It seemed to be the perfect moment to try to do my own local production of chocolate-covered orange peels. It is actually very simple to do and they turned out really good! My first batch disappeared in an evening…
The only technical part in this recipe is if you choose to temper the chocolate, but you can skip that step if you want. The taste will be the same, but the texture and visual of the chocolate is much better if you temper it (more about tempering further down…). Apart from that you just need a little bit of patience as the preparation runs over two days due to the infusion and drying of the peels. Since we are going to use the peel I strongly recommend you get organic oranges for this recipe.
THE TIPS TO SUCCEED
1: Use a good quality dark chocolate with 60-70% cacao
2: When working with chocolate your equipment needs to be completely dry. A drop of water is enough to make your chocolate too hard to work with.
3: If you choose to temper the chocolate: The heating up is very quick so you need to watch the temperature carefully. The cooling down on the other hand needs patience…
Let’s get started
Ingredients
- 4 pcs Oranges ((Peels + Juice from ½ orange))
- 500 g Sugar
- 1 l Water
- ½ pcs Lemon
- 1 pcs Vanilla bean (optional)
- 1 pcs Cinnamon stick (optional)
- 300 g Dark Chocolate 60-70% Chocolate
How to do it?
Day 1
Cut the peel of the oranges in four big parts and add to a saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to boil. Strain, discarding the water, cover the peels with cold again water and bring to boil. Repeat this operation a third time.
Cut the peels into 3mm thick sticks.
Bring to boil 1 l of water, the sugar, juice from ½ lemon and ½ orange, a vanilla bean cut in two and the cinnamon stick in order to create a syrup.Add the orange peels, cover and reduce the temperature until the mixture just simmers (very small bubbles should appear on the surface)
Let the mixture simmer for 1h15 minutes and then leave the mixture in the syrup until the next day.
Day 2
Remove the orange peels from the syrup, let them drip off in a sift, and dry them off on a kitchen paper.
Leave them spread out on a baking paper to dry until the following day.
Day 3: The simple version
Melt the chocolate, dip the orange peels using a fork and leave them to cool on a baking paper.
Day 3: The best version with tempered chocolate
Why do we temper the chocolate? When the chocolate has tempered, which means it has been heated through a specific heat curve, it will pre-crystallize the cocoa butter. When you do this the chocolate will be smooth and glossy and it will not melt on your fingers as quickly. Each chocolate color has its own temperature curve to follow.
Start by adding the chocolate in a bowl placed into hot (but not boiling!) water.
Stir regularly and bring the chocolate to a temperature of 50-55°c. You need to use a cooking thermometer and carefully watch the temperature.
Remove the bowl from the pan and place it in cold water until the temperature of the chocolate is down to 35°c. Then place it at room temperature until it reaches 26-27°c. Stir now and then.
Put the bowl back into hot water and stir until the temperature of the chocolate reaches 31-32°c.
Remove the bowl from the hot water and dip the orange peels in the chocolate before leaving them to cool down on a baking paper. If the process takes too long and your chocolate goes cold, just heat it back up to 31-32°c.
How to serve the Chocolate-covered orange peels?
Besides being the perfect sweet snack for yourself, this is a really nice Christmas gift. Wrap them in a box or a transparent plastic pouch and you will for sure make someone happy for Christmas.
Chocolate-covered orange peels
Ingredients
- 4 pcs Oranges (Peels + Juice from ½ orange)
- 250 g Sugar
- 500 ml Water
- ½ pcs Lemon
- 1 pcs Vanilla bean
- 1 pcs Cinnamon stick
- 300 g Dark Chocolate 60-70% Chocolate
Instructions
Day 1
- Cut the peel of the oranges in four big parts.
- Cover the peels with cold water, bring to boil and strain (discarding the water).
- Repeat the above operation twice.
- Cut the peels into 3mm thick sticks.
- Bring to boil 1 l of water, the sugar, juice from ½ lemon and ½ orange, a vanilla bean cut in two and the cinnamon stick in order to create a syrup.
- Add the orange peels, cover and reduce the temperature until the mixture just simmers (very small bubbles should appear on the surface)
- Let the mixture simmer for 1h15 minutes and then leave the mixture in the syrup until the next day.
Day 2
- Remove the orange peels from the syrup, let them drip off in a sift, and dry them off on a kitchen paper.
- Leave them spread out on a baking paper to dry until the follow day.
Day 3: The simple version
- Melt the chocolate, dip the orange peels using a fork and leave to cool on a baking paper.
Day 3: The best version with tempered chocolate
- Put the chocolate in a bowl into hot (but not boiling!) water in a saucepan.
- Stir regularly and bring the chocolate to a temperature of 50-55°c. You need to use a cooking thermometer and carefully watch the temperature.
- Remove the bowl from the saucepan and place it in cold water until the temperature of the chocolate is down to 35°c. Then place it at room temperature until it reaches 26-27°c. Stir regularly.
- Put the bowl back into hot water and stir until the temperature of the chocolate reaches 31-32°c
- Remove the bowl from the hot water and dip the orange peels in the chocolate before leaving them to cool down on a baking paper.
