Mandarin Orangettes

Candied orange peel and rich, dark chocolate are a match made in heaven. Chocolate and Zucchini gets credit for this particular recipe and inspiration. I've been too intimidated to try chocolates in the past, but Clotilde made it all sound so... approachable.

The work started several weeks ago when I prepared my candied orange peel. The actual recipe can be found here, but here's the short version. Find really good oranges. Seriously, don't try to cut corners on the oranges. If you use tired and desiccated fruit that has spent the last six weeks in semi trailer, it will taste like it. I used Mandarin oranges. Cut the peel into strips, cook in syrup, cool and pack in sugar.

I was expecting a tremendous amount of work for the candied peels, but they weren't difficult. The most time consuming step is to remove as much white pith as possible, while maintaining nice long strips of peel. Once I had my peels nestled in sugar, life interfered and they lay expectantly in my cupboard until this weekend, itching to take a swim in glorious dark chocolate.

The next step was daunting, for lack of proper materials. I have no chocolate dipping fork, no feuille guitare nor any chocolat de couverture. Heck, I don't even have a double boiler. What I lack in equipment, ingredients and class, I attempted to compensate for with dogged determination.

I gently removed the peels from their bed and brushed off as much excess sugar as I could. In hindsight, I should have been more aggressive with my brushing, but I was trying to avoid breaking any of the strips. In place of a true double boiler, I nested two small pots. Into the inner pot, I melted most of a bar of Terra Nostra Organic Dark Chocolate (I couldn't help but nibble) and an entire bar of Lindt Bittersweet Fine Dark Chocolate. Chocolate intended for dipping would have been preferred, but the melted bars worked well enough.

Once the bars melted down, I dropped the peels into their chocolate bath and stirred to coat before laying each peel side-by-side (not touching!) on sheets of parchment paper. I had a couple of minor problems with the dipping. The chocolate clumped slightly as I pulled out each peel. I'm guessing that this is a result of the kind of chocolate I used. The Terra Nostra is 57% cacao, and the Lindt seemed similar. Would a different ratio of cacao to emulsifiershave helped? I also noticed that the chocolate dip became grainy towards the end as granulated sugar sloughed off into the pot. I know to be better about my brushing next time. Neither of these issues were critical, and in no time I had two baking sheets filled to the edges with orangettes, as closely as I could fit them.

The sheets went into the fridge to set the chocolate. After an hour, I sampled a few peels.

Absolutely. Un. Believable.

It starts with a sultry, dark chocolate and then the orange explodes through your mouth before settling down into perfect harmony. Sweet with a hint of bitter, smooth on the outside with a satisfying touch of chew inside. Even though these are terribly rich and decadent, I can't stop eating them.

My dinner guests, if I may say so, were in complete awe when I trotted the Mandarin Orangettes out at the end of our meal. Junko observed, "You should sell these." (I could see her already counting our possible fortunes.) This recipe is a keeper. Thanks, Clotilde!