Category: Desserts

Chocolate Covered Bitter Orange Rinds

Ingredients:

Slit the rinds of six organically grown Navel, blood or other thick-skinned bitter oranges longtitudinally in four quarters and remove carefully. (Use the flesh of the oranges in our Tart Salad.) Cut each quarter into four strips.
Make a syrup of a cup of cane sugar in two cups of water. Bring to a boil and add the orange rinds. Return to a boil, and lower the heat to allow the rinds to simmer in the syrup for five minutes. Let stand overnight. Bring to the boil again, simmer for a further five minutes, let cool once again.
Remove the rinds from the syrup with a slotted spoon or chopsticks and let them dry for twenty four hours on a sheet of parchment paper.*
Strain the syrup and mix with half a cup of Dutch roasted cocoa powder. Bring to the boil, stirring continually, and cook for thirty seconds. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Put the orange rinds in the chocolate and coat them thoroughly.
Put the rinds out onto parchment paper and let them dry for four hours. Coat once again with the chocolate, and allow to set overnight. Don't let them dry out entirely, or they will lose their gloss and become a dull brown.*

Notes:

*Parchment paper is expensive, but you can use each sheet many times. You may have to go to a kitchen supply store to find any.
*Candymakers create the glossy looks of commercial chocolates with a 'finishing' preparation that usually includes paraffin and waxes of various natures. Finishing chocolate is more for looks than for 'good eatin.'

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