Chocolate Orangettes

A few days ago while having lunch at my sister's house, my brother in law came up with the idea of making orangettes.
It's basically candied oranges covered with a nice good quality dark chocolate; sounds simple, and inexpensive but for some reason they are sold at really high prices at every other bakery.
This led to a debate about how 3 simple and cheap ingredients, that everyone has at home, can end up being sold at prices that can sometimes be outrageous.
So finally I decided to give it a try myself and see if it was worth making them at home rather than buying them.

The procedure goes as follows:

First of all you must cut the orange peel in slices (the width should be almost 1cm).

Blanch them in water at least 4 times to get rid of any bitterness. To do this put the orange rinds in water and once it starts boiling strain them and restart the same process.

 Remember it has to boil 4 times!

So once you've blanched them, it's time to candy the rinds.

For 5 large oranges I used 1/2 liter of water and 250 grms of sugar. I poured both ingredients into a saucepan and once the sugar had dissolved and started to boil I incorporated the orange peel. This step can take a while, 45 minutes or so at medium to low heat and stirring once in a while. The peel strips will be ready once they become translucent.
What's the next step? Leave them to dry over a cool rack for 4 - 5 hours (I left mine for almost 24 hours!). Check out how translucent they are, that's what they should look like!

Keep the leftover syrup , it can be useful in sooooo many ways, for fruity cocktails, to soak over a cake, anything!

Once the strips are dry, the last step will be dipping them in tempered dark chocolate (I used 70% dark chocolate).
Chop the chcolate (200 grms) pour 2/3 over a heat proof bowl and melt it, the temperature must rise to 50ºC, remove from the heat and add the remaining 1/3 chopped chocolate.  Let it cool to 26/27ºC and once again put it over the heat until it's at 32ºC, now it's at a perfect temperature to coat without being too runny.

Dip the strips with the help of two forks and place over a cookie sheet to cool.

 

Leave for 1 or 2 hours (max) to dry. 

Et voilà! 

In conclusion, these treats are a little time consuming and messy, but not at all difficult and what's most important, they taste delicious! So from now on, no more store bought, just homemade orangettes!

And last but not least I want to give special thanks to Naranjas Orbe for having such great oranges, I will definitely be using them for more recipes!