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Chocolate-dipped candied orange peels

Time2 hours 15 minutes
YieldsMakes about 120 candies
Chocolate-dipped candied orange peels
(Ricardo DeAratanha / LAT)
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If you were asked to name a food that is perfect just as is, a good piece of chocolate might come to mind.

But pair chocolate with one of four particular flavors -- mint, orange, hazelnut or coffee -- and you have a first-class food-world paradox: perfection enhanced.

And there’s a bonus to doing a little flavor matchmaking: The perfect thing called chocolate has in fact evolved and gotten even better over time. A new and international generation of chocolate now graces specialty and even some grocery store shelves. Valrhona, from France, Scharffen Berger made in San Francisco, and Callebaut, from Belgium, lead the pack, and there are the equally good but less ubiquitous El Rey, from Venezuela, and E. Guittard, also San Franciscan. These brands boast their cacao content and sometimes the source of their cacao beans on elegant labels.

The rule when cooking with these chocolates is much like the rule for cooking with wine: Use what tastes best to you. Which of course means you must sample as much as you can. No, really, you must. For science. Just know that as long as you avoid the harsh, gritty baker’s chocolate squares of a decade ago and choose the kind of bar that might accidentally be devoured in the car before it gets to your kitchen, you’ll be fine.

Here’s a cooking rule of thumb: The higher the cacao content, the more serious the chocolate. White chocolate has no cacao mass at all, and milk chocolate must contain at least 10%. Bittersweet and semisweet are interchangeable terms that mean at least 35% cacao presence, although these days 50% to 60% is standard. Chocolates with 60% and higher cacao mass are generally referred to as high percentage, although they can be used in recipes specifying semisweet or bittersweet to marvelous effect. The terms “sweet” and “unsweetened” refer to the amount of sugar added (or not); with these, cacao percentages can vary.

A great way to spotlight these terrific chocolates is to dip something wonderful in them. A staple in French confiseries, chocolate-dipped orange peels are the perfect little something to serve with after-dinner Cognac or coffee, or to give as a gift.

Candying orange peels distills the essence of the orange oil into sweet, tender, slightly chewy little treats. But before transforming an inedible peel to a marvelous candy, you must blanch it three times, progressively reducing the bitterness of the pith. Next you’ll cook the peels in sugar syrup until they become translucent and tender. Choose the most delicious chocolate you know to dip the orange peels in: Valrhona Pur Caraibe 66%, with its fruity sweetness, minimal sugar and well-balanced deep chocolate flavor, is an excellent choice. If you wanted to go truly deep, dark and sophisticated, try a chocolate with, say, a 71% cacao content.

In our quest for the finest high cacao-content chocolates, we sometimes overlook the pleasure of milk chocolate. It’s not just kid stuff. And nowhere does it show to better effect than in gianduja, a felicitious blend of chocolate and pulverized hazelnuts. A well-known Swiss concoction, gianduja is also claimed by the Italians, who harvest a great many hazelnuts in the Piedmont region. (They go so far as to say that gianduja or giandujotto takes its name from a popular Turin-based folk character, Gioan d’la Duja, or “John the jug,” who apparently enjoyed his wine quite a bit.)

From whatever country it comes, a gianduja truffle is divine. Creamy hazelnut butter, milk chocolate and cream create a silky-smooth truffle center. Crunchy toasted nuts and semisweet chocolate on the outside emphasize the caramel undertones of milk chocolate.

Finally, a perfect chocolate cake is like a perfect black dress; once you find it, you stick by it a long while. My favorite recipe -- one layered with whipped chocolate mint ganache -- is borrowed (and simplified somewhat) from Alice Medrich’s book “Bittersweet” (Artisan, 2003). By heating fresh peppermint leaves in cream and allowing them to steep, you will infuse the ganache with pure mint bliss. The texture of this cake is amazing, but the mint takes it out of this world.

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1

Score the orange peels into quarters without cutting through to the flesh of the orange, and peel the oranges, reserving the fruit for another use. Scrape some of the pith from the inside of the peels so they will be about one-eighth to one-fourth inch thick. Trim the pointed ends of the peels and cut the peels into one-fourth-inch-wide strips.

2

Place the orange peel strips in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes. Drain, place them back in the saucepan and repeat the process two more times. Drain the peels; cool and pat dry.

3

Place 1 cup water, the sugar and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Wash down any sugar on the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cook the sugar syrup to the soft thread stage, 230 to 234 degrees. Add the orange peels to the sugar syrup. Do not stir at any time or the sugar may crystallize -- swirl the pan to stir if necessary. Simmer the peels on medium-low heat until they are translucent, 45 minutes to one hour.

4

Remove the peels from the syrup with a slotted spoon and place on a cooling rack set over a parchment-lined baking sheet. Separate each peel. Allow the peels to dry, uncovered, for 4 to 6 hours.

5

Chop the chocolate into pieces no larger than one-fourth inch and place the pieces in the top of a double boiler. Melt the chocolate, stirring often, over gently simmering water. Remove it from the heat (wiping the bottom of the bowl or pan so water doesn’t accidentally drip into the chocolate).

6

Reline the baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Dip the orange peels halfway into the chocolate a few at a time. Gently shake off some of the excess chocolate; place the peels on the baking sheet. Repeat until all of the orange peels are dipped. Refrigerate the peels for half an hour to set the chocolate. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Triple-blanching the orange peels removes the bitterness.