Easy Chocolate Orange Thins

Penny — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 15:47:52 +0000

This simple chocolate coated peel recipe – Chocolate Orange Thins is a must have backup for hostess gifts and entertaining.

The final stage – Chocolate Orange Thins ready to eat/package

Here in South West France there is always a huge influx of citrus stalls that pop up along the roadsides at the end of summer. I cannot resist snapping up these crates of huge juicy healthy skinned oranges, lemons and other citrus from Southern Spain at low cost. This recipe for Chocolate Orange Thins is always hubby’s favourite.

Whilst delicious, most importantly Chocolate Orange Thins are a clever way to always have a much appreciated gift ready to grab and go. Simply freeze in airtight container and they will keep for months.

Options

This orange recipe can be adapted to any citrus fruit of your choice. Husband’s favourite is Pink Grapefruit Chocolate Thins. My neighbour loves the tang that comes from Lime Chocolate Thins. My recent experiment with cumquats has become my personal favourite and is mouth shockingly wonderful albeit fiddly to do with the small fruits.

Chcolate Orange Thins in your freezer ensures you are always have gifts to hand at a fraction of the cost of buying handmade chocolates or confectionery.

No waste!

Using only the skin for this recipe means you have a lot of flesh and juice leftover but this is actually hidden treasure. Reserve to one side and after you have completed the peel stages in the syrup, add your flesh and juices to the syrup and simmer to extract as much flavour as possible.
Strain off the juice and simmer again until mixture has reduced by at least one third. Don’t over boil or you will end up with a pot of hard toffee – be gentle.
Once reduced this, the syrup can become a base for marmalade, a fruit syrup/glaze or be used in many other recipes limited only by your imagination. It stores well refrigerated in an airtight glass jar. I often pull the syrup out as a drizzle or as a sorbet base or simmer in some gelatine and use as a glaze for tarts or cheesecake. A spoonful into fruit salad transforms it.
Or best of all – a cheat way to whip up Crepes Suzette at a moments notice – a knob of butter, splash of syrup in a frying pan, drop in the crepes or pancakes (store bought are fine) use a splash of my Orange Armagnac or an orange liquor and serve with ice-cream. Divine!

Important tips

Be sure to use the best quality chocolate you can afford such as Valrhona or Lindt. However, you can opt for dark, milk, white or the new trendy ruby chocolate. Any good cooking/confectionery chocolate will do.
Secondly, select your citrus fruits without blemishes. The thicker the skin/peel, the easier it will be to remove the bitter white pith during the preparation stage.
Importantly, if using very strong citrus fruits such as limes or cumquats, make your strips smaller and more appropriate to the serving size.
keep to one type of fruit per blanching batch.
Do not skip any of the blanching steps, they are important.
have lots of cookie racks or similar for the drying stage.
the process is messy. I cover my island bench with grease proof/waxed paper for an easier clean up.
Keep your eyes open for fun packaging to have on hand to present your gifts in. I love picking up little gift boxes at the various discount stores or clip top jars. Action stores in France are a great place to find containers and gift packaging.
It is important to store them in the freezer where they will not be jostled or crushed. I use freezer safe plastic tubs, separating the peel layers with grease proof paper and add a small piece of paper towel to absorb any sweating and to a avoid freezer burn.
Last tip! Do not reveal to your other half where you keep them. I hide mine under a bag of frozen spinach – it has worked.

Chocolate Orange Thins Recipe:

INGREDIENTS

a good stock of chocolate (see tip above) – I find that 250 grams (one block) per 4-5 pieces of fruit is a good guide.
Oranges or any form skinned citrus fruit. 4-5 pieces is minimum to justify the bother. I usually do around 5 kilos and take over the entire kitchen as simply one big mess
white sugar – basic crystallised is fine approximately. Circa 500 grams per 4-5 oranges
1:25 litres of water per 500 grams of sugar for syrup stage, plus additional water for blanching
Optional – vanilla powder or bean to add to syrup

METHOD – Step 1: the peel

The blanching process

Firstly, wash all fruit well ensuring there is no bruising or other skin areas you would NOT want to eat.
Set a large pot of water to boil and have colander and draining area ready. Lay out your wire racks ready for draining stage.
Cut fruit in quarters and scoop out flesh (see note above if you don’t want to waste).
Once you have just quarters of shell, start to trim away as much as the white pith as possible without cutting into the outer skin.
Next, cut each piece into strips- this is personal preference. I usually find with a medium size orange I cut each quarter into 6 strips. For a larger fruit more strips and reverse for small fruits.

Draining in between blanching

Next drop strips into your simmering pot of water and keep it in a rolling slow boil for 3-5 minutes. Blanch only as many strips that can move freely in the boiling water as seen above.
after five minutes drain into a colander. Discard water and repeat process twice with fresh water each time. A minimum of three blanchings is vital. The skin will start to look slightly translucent. Careful as strips begin to get fragile and will break if not handled gently.
drain well after final blanching and lay strips out on paper towel to dry. Combine sugar and water – sugar 500 gms per 1.25 litres of water (plus a half teaspoon of vanilla powder or a halved vanilla bean if you wish).
bring to a rolling boil
Once your strips have dried on the paper towel, gently peel them off and drop them into the boiling syrup and gently swirl, stir, mix to ensure each is free moving in the syrup. Simmer/very slow boil for a minimum of 30 minutes until skin is virtually transparent/translucent and the liquid has slightly evaporated.
carefully remove the strips from the liquid using tongs or a slotted spoon and carefully separate them over wire racks to dry. It is important that they can air dry freely. Leave a minimum of eight hours/overnight.

After the glacé process in the syrup – carefully laid out peels drying overnight

METHOD – Step 2: Chocolate dipping

After you have left your peel to dry into glacé peel, you can simply toss the strips in white sugar and preserve. These are also delicious sweet meats or as baking decorations.

Or to finish your chocolate orange thins, we need to add the chocolate.

chop chocolate and place in the top of a double boiler or in a bowl that will sit well over the pan of water. The water in the pan should not touch the bowl. Gently melt the chocolate over simmering water careful to ensure no water splash or your chocolate will split. I stir my chocolate with a wooden chopstick to get it smooth.
Now using tongs or clean fingers or a sate stick, dip each piece into the melted chocolate and lay on baking paper to set. It is your choice whether you fully dip of leave a portion of the peel exposed. I do the latter as I like the look of a section of the fruit revealed as shown.
Wrap a parcel in cellophane for immediate gifting, box up or set in grease proof layers in freezer container. They defrost quickly and will store for up to a year in the freezer and keep for months on the shelf in an airtight container.
Do NOT leave these Chocolate Orange Thins in a warm place. You will end up with a molten lump. Yep – left them in the car on the way to a party. The hostess and I both gasped when she opened the box.

Et voila

No matter what time or occasion, these treats will bring a smile. Enjoy and let me know how you went.

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