Candied Orange Dipped in Dark Chocolate

I had the idea for these when I saw candied fruit slices decorating a beautiful cake.  I’ll make those to put on my next cake, I thought. 

Well, when they were done I couldn’t resist trying one by itself first, you know every good chef tries her ingredients before adding them to the recipe, right?  Then husband had to try one. He loved how the sea salt flakes really enhanced the paring of the sweetness of the orange and the bitterness of the dark chocolate.  By then it was too late in the evening to start baking a cake, so I thought “we’ll just leave these out until tomorrow”.  And maybe have one more with a cup of tea before bed.  And maybe one with breakfast. And so on….  So, as you can see, there is no candied orange dipped in chocolate with sea salt flakes decorated cake photos here, they simply didn’t last long enough to make it to the cake, haha. I wish you better luck than I had, but just to give your willpower the boost it may need, you might want to bake your cake first, then make these to add them to the top.  Or just have them with a nice cup of tea like I did. Enjoy!

 

Ingredients:

• Fresh oranges sliced thin
• 1 ¹/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar
• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• A pinch of sea salt flakes

DirectionS:

1. In a large, heavy skillet, bring 1.5 cups water and 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar to a boil… then add the orange slices
2. Let it boil for about 5-10 minutes, turning once or twice, then reduce the heat to medium and let it continue cooking for about 30 minutes turning occasionally.
3. The liquid will thicken and become a syrup. Reduce the heat until the oranges are at a low simmer… continue cooking and occasionally turning until the syrup is thick and the oranges are translucent but still intact.
4. Remove from heat but let the orange slices remain in the pan as they cool for about 10 minutes… then remove to a sheet of wax paper to cool completely
5. Meanwhile, in a small glass bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 20-second intervals, stirring with a spatula between each interval, until just melted.
6. Carefully dip 1 side of each orange slice in the melted chocolate and return to the wax paper lined tray to cool.
7. Finish with sea salt flakes