Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Peel

As I’ve mentioned, one of the silver linings in all this lockdown time has been the quality time I’ve gotten to spend with my mama. While we’ve for 22 years been spending Wednesdays together and many Shabbatot, the difference now is that Mom finally agreed to move in with me (and my SIL and bro) alternately on Shabbat and it’s a whole other thing to have the whole Shabbat before you and know that you can chat to your heart’s content. We often look at each other in amusement and say things like, so, have we covered all the politics? Shall we move on to the portion of the week (in the Torah)?

Due to this, I think about not only what to make to please DH (and me, of course) but the Mommabird as well. So I was looking high and low for candied orange peel in order to make her lebkuchen again Lebkuchen (Spice Cookies) For My Mama when I realized that I couldn’t find any and didn’t have access to a shop that carried any. This was annoying but gave birth to the notion that I could make my own. After all, oranges are now in abundance and I figured it couldn’t be too difficult. But what wound up happening, although I squirreled away some plain candied orange peel, was I spied a version for chocolate dipped. Let me start by saying that this made such a wild hit with everyone that I’ve put it permanently on the list of things to make. And Lebkuchen will be made another time.

So, you need to buy a bunch of oranges, at least 4 nice big ones to make it worthwhile and an important note. You DO wanna leave the bitter white pith on, as opposed to when you grate the peel. Otherwise, your candied peel will get leathery and squinched up and just nasty. Fair warning.

I will show you how to properly peel the peels. (Yes, it matters).

Scrub the oranges and then chop of the “head” and “tail” of the oranges and then with a sharp knife make a shallow cut all around each orange from top to bottom. Note in the above pic, the cut is vertical top to bottom. Then peel off the peel. You will be leaving some of the white pith behind and some will stay on your peel. You want this. Note the peels in the background. Then stack the peels and cut into about 1/4 of an inch each peel like so:

As far as the oranges go, I just slice ’em up and eat ’em. Yum. Onward. Now you know that orange peel is bitter as is, so you are gonna boil up the peels in plain water and then pour out the water, draining the peels. You will do this 2 times.

I do cover the pot whilst it boils and tilt the lid. First time around, boil them for 15 minutes, drain the water completely and start with fresh water and boil about 10 minutes, drain completely and leave in the sieve. Take fresh water and sugar and bring to a boil. Add the peels and cook on medium heat for about 20-30 minutes till sugar syrup cooks down and peels look syrupy.

Prepare a bowl with granulated sugar. Set aside.

Now don’t drain the peels, rather take a slotted spoon and carefully scoop them out and immediately place into the sugar in the bowl. Toss the peels in the sugar and they will get “crusted” with the sugar. Don’t discard liquid! see second note below.

Take the sugared peels and lay them on a parchment papered baking tray to dry a bit. Now you have a choice. Let them dry for a day or two and have them as candied peels or dry briefly (about an hour) and dip them into the chocolate.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave with some oil and stir till smooth. Then there are two ways to dip them.

You can put a few in the bowl at a time and get a smooth glaze and fish them out with a fork (see above in the corner) and place on a piece of parchment paper and put in fridge to harden (15-25 minutes) or throw a large amount in at a time and get a more bumpy look. In a hurry before Shabbat, the first time I went the bumpy route. Next times, smooth glaze, it’s prettier, but it’s up to you.

By the way, the extra bits of chocolate on the sides break off easily to give a more professional look. Either way these are divine. I admit they are tartish and sweet and possibly an acquired taste for some but my sister Tova asked me to bring her some and I did and she sorta swooned. So trust me, addictive. Don’t worry about how they keep, they won’t. They disappeared so fast in my house that I turned around and saw a few lonely pieces left. Hence the necessity to make them again…and again!

Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Peel

4 large oranges, well scrubbed
boiling water
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
additional sugar for tossing
1 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips/disks
1 tabelspoon oil (canola is good)

Directions:

Take the oranges and cut off their “heads” and “tails” and cut with a sharp knife thin slices all around the oranges vertically to help peel them (see pics above). Peel them leaving some white pith on the peel. (The oranges can be eaten up or juiced). Then cut peels into 1/4 inch strips. Place in a pot with water and boil for 15 minutes. Drain the peels and discard the liquid, cover peels with boiling water and boil again for about 10 minutes. Again, drain in colander and discard the liquid (it’s super bitter so no point saving it). Measure into your pot the sugar and a fresh cup of water and bring to boil. Add the peels and cook till the liquid is syrup and the peels start to look coated. This can take about 20-30 minutes or so, the liquid should reduce to about half or more.

Prepare a bowl with granulated (regular) sugar and using a slotted spoon, lift out the peels (let excess liquid drip back into pot) and plunk into the sugar. Toss, toss, toss immediately till peels get coated with sugar and “encrusted” looking. Lay to dry on parchment paper lined baking sheets. If you at this point want only candied peels, leave to dry for a day or two till firm. If you wish to coat them with the chocolate, let dry for one hour.

Put chocolate and oil in a bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring each time till melted (usually takes me 1 1/2 minutes all told). When melted, but not hot, take a few peels at a time and dunk into chocolate using a fork to fish them out and letting excess chocolate drip back into bowl. Lay to dry on parchment lined baking sheet and you can speed up the drying process by placing in the fridge for 30 minutes. Bam you’re done. Try not to eat them all on your own!

A note, don’t ignore the chocolate, do it right away since after about 5 minutes, it’ll start to harden and you’ll have to melt more and it’s annoying.

Another note, don’t discard the orange syrupy liquid left over from the peels. They make a fabulous addition to tea, water, soda water or in place of liquid in a cake batter.