Orangettes

You have just over one week until Valentine's Day to make something special for your special someone.. My special someone happens to love Orangettes, so I thought it'd be nice to post about them. I made these for christmas but might make another batch soon. You can use other citrus peel as well - I bet lemon or grapefruit would be really nice. And do use a good chocolate, it'll really affect the outcome. I don't bother with tempering, but then again, I keep mine in the fridge.

Orangettes

Three oranges

Sugar syrup:
200 g sugar
200 g water

To cover:
100 g dark chocolate

Start by washing the oranges carefully. Use organic, unwaxed if you can find them, or just scrub regular oranges well. Dry them, cut the peel into fourths, gently peel and cut across to make nice little sticks of peel.

Place the orange peel in a small saucepan. Bring water to the boil in a kettle or another pan, and pour this over the peel. Let it boil for three minutes, then drain. Repeat this twice, with fresh water each time. This blanching will make the bitterness go away, and it'll also help the peel absorb more sugar syrup.

After the third drain, mix sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. add the peel, and leave to cook on low heat for 30-35 minutes. Be careful to not let it dry out so check on it!

Drain (and you might want to reserve the syrup, which is now lovely with its intense orange flavor) and place on rack to dry up overnight. On the next day, melt some chocolate, and dip the peel. Place again on the rack to dry.

Recipe in Swedish:
Syltade apelsinskal