Chocolate-Covered Candied Orange Peels

For me, the holidays are officially here when I watch A Muppet Christmas Carol (while decorating the tree) and when I make candied orange peels.

As I said earlier, my mom was famous for her orange peels. Her friends would hide them from their children, saving them all for themselves. They're not difficult to make, they're just time- (and space-) intensive. I usually make a double batch, using every single baking sheet I have for drying and dipping. I don't like grapefruit (unless it's mixed with vodka in a Grayhound), so I make mine with all oranges.

Chocolate Dipped Orange and Grapefruit Peel
1 large grapefruit, 3 large navel oranges
1 cup of honey
About 1 cup of sugar
16 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1. Remove peels. Cut it into 1/4" strips. Place in a 5-qt. Saucepan; cover with cold water; bring to a full boil; then drain. Repeat four times.
2. Transfer drained peel to a large skillet; add honey and 2/3 cup water. Cook slowly until all syrup is gone--about 60 min. Cook 15 min. longer, over low heat, being careful not to scorch the fruit.
3. Drain thoroughly; cool; then roll each strip in sugar. Spread out on cookie sheets in single layer; dry overnight. Next day, roll again in sugar.
4. In top of double boiler, over hot (not boiling) water, melt chocolate. Holding with tongs, dip each strip in the chocolate; drain off excess. Place on waxed paper on tray. Cool. Store in refrigerator.

A note on dipping: I'm lazy, so I only dip the peels halfway and I think the contrast between the dark chocolate and the crystallized orange is pretty. Also, I dip my peels in bittersweet chocolate, mainly because I get it in large packages at Costco. You can use milk, semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, whatever taste you like best.


This year, I made fudge and almond toffee to go in my goodie packages. Looking through my notes from pastry classes, I found something interesting:

For every 1,000 feet/300 meters above sea level, subtract 2 degrees F/1 degree C from every boiling point listed in the recipe.

I'd never really thought about altering candy recipes for high altitude before, but it does make sense considering baking recipes need to account for differences in evaporation. I have to say, the fudge was creamier than the previous times I'd made it. So, try it and see if it makes a difference in your candy recipes.

Jewelry Organizer

I don't have a huge amount of jewelry, but I do have a few pieces I wear all the time. My current jewelry location (a drawer) was getting too messy--all my necklaces were getting tangled and I couldn't find pendants or earrings that I wanted. Solution? A wall organizer to keep my necklaces neat and everything else easy to find.

I got a cool frame (on sale at Michael's), some corkboard and 4 pieces of scrapbooking paper. I took out the glass, glued the corkboard to the back of the frame, then cut the paper and glued that to the corkboard. I got some pretty, pearlized sewing pins to hang everything from and stood back to enjoy the effect!