Orangettes and Raspberry Chocolate - A Little Decadence for the Holidays

Nope, not especially healthy, although not too dreadful if you can keep your consumption of these moderate. Depending on how much you adore them, this can be quite challenging. The raspberry chocolate I make is a particular weakness of mine now.

We’ll start with the Orangettes. I decided to make these after reading about them at Plate Tectonics. I just made a few because I hadn’t tried them before.

Orangettes

Cut off the top and bottom of an orange. Slice through peel to make it easier to peel, and to prepare for the rest of the recipe. Slice into strips no more than 1/2 inch thick.

Blanch in boiling water for several minutes. Repeat at least two more times, changing the water each time. This helps to remove the bitterness.

orange peels in syrup

In a pot make simple syrup, using a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water. Add blanched peels, bring to boil, then simmer for one hour. Drain and allow to cool for an hour or more. Since I was doing the peels from just one orange, I used my strainer rather than a drying rack.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or very carefully in the microwave. If you use the microwave, stop and stir often to keep the chocolate from burning.

Dip peels in chocolate. Sprinkle cocoa powder on it if you like for an added touch of chocolate. This step reminded me that putting some in a shaker would have been much easier. Dry on wax paper.

orangettes

Raspberry Chocolate

good quality dark chocolate (I use Ghirardelli 60% cocoa chips as they are very available in my area)
Just Raspberries (dried raspberries)
candy molds

just raspberries

Melt chocolate in double boiler or cautiously in microwave. Be very, very careful when trying to melt chocolate in the microwave.

Pour some of the raspberries into a baggie, and use the back of a spoon to break up the larger pieces.

Mix the two together, and spoon into candy molds. Refrigerate or allow to cool on counter.

These are really good, and proportions depend on what you want from it. I love it pretty heavy on the raspberry, but others may want it lighter.

Either of these recipes is good for an easy, homemade gift for the holidays. I get my Just Raspberries at Henry’s, and I would guess that other Whole Foods type stores would be the best guess in other areas. Amazon also carries them in much larger tubs than I get locally. Mine was a 2 oz tub, while the one I see on Amazon is 8 oz. For the quantity, the Amazon price is not bad, as the 2 oz size runs $7-8.

Candy molds are available at many craft stores, such as Michaels.

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