To Accompany your Champagne

Sally and I had a champagne party to go to last weekend and when it came to deciding what to bring, we were at a loss.  We needed something classy (to go along with the champagne), something pretty (to match all the formal-wear), and something light (the party didn't start til 10pm).  Chocolate covered strawberries would have been perfect, but strawberries are out of season and expensive.  Luckily, during our weekly trip to the Farmer's Market, Sally and I spotted a fruit that would make a great alternative: oranges.

Now, chocolate covered oranges aren't particularly classy or pretty, though I would suppose they would be considered light finger food.  Chocolate covered candied orange peel, on the other hand...

 Begin by peeling the orange, leaving on as much of the pith as possible.  Sally and I made this easier by slicing the top and bottom off the orange and dividing it into six sections before peeling.

Cut the orange peel into 1/4 inch wide strips.  Sally wishes to remind you that when she says 1/4 inch, she means 1/4 inch, not the 1/8 inch strips I ended up cutting.

Blanche the orange peels to get rid of the bitter taste. 

Let the orange peel simmer in a mixture of sugar and water until translucent (about 1 hour) and avoid stirring.

Remove orange peels and leave them to dry on a drying rack.  Use a cookie sheet under the rack to catch any drips.  Try and separate each peel so they are not touching - otherwise they'll be stuck together. 

If you don't have a drying rack (or don't have enough space on your drying rack), improvise!  I used a row of three chopsticks here.  Then get ready for a lot of waiting... it took 2 days for our orange peels to dry.    You'll know when they're dry by the hardness (they won't be as floppy) and the white sugar crystals you can see in the above picture.

Time to dip them in chocolate! Leave them to dry on a drying rack or propped up against the rim of a cookie tin, like you see here.

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peel
adapted from Bon Appetit here
Ingredients
2 navel oranges
3 cups sugar
3 cups water
4 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet or dark chocolate
Directions
1. Peel orange, retaining as much pith as possible.  Cut orange peel into 1/4 inch wide slices.
2. Blanche orange three times: place orange peels in pot.  Fill with enough cold water to cover.  Place pot on stove and heat water until boiling.  Drain water and rinse orange peels with cold water.  Repeat twice.
3. Remove orange peels from pot and set aside.  Add 3 cups water and 3 cups sugar to pot, heat until boiling.  Add peel, bring to a boil.  Lower heat until water simmers, wait until peel turns translucent (~1 hour).
4. Drain water and separate out orange peels on drying rack.  Leave until completely dry (~2 days).
5. Heat chocolate over double boiler or in microwave, until melted.  Dip orange peel into chocolate and lay out to dry (~2 hours).

Cookie Exchange!

Sally and I are always up for giving away baked goods.  It's great to know you've brightened someone's day by handing them a fresh chocolate chip cookie (or by sending several dozen through the mail) and we bake too much for just the two of us anyway.  Receiving cookies is just as good - we get to try out things we might never bake in our own kitchen.  So when we heard about this cookie exchange over at Steph Chows, we didn't even have to consult each other before deciding to put our name on the list.

That was over a month ago, before the crazy holidays, and before we knew how crazy the holidays were going to be.  In fact, it almost feels like holiday season is still here with these gingerbread cookies covered in orange glaze.  It's always a relief to find a cookie recipe that uses molasses, because I usually end up buying a bottle to make gingerbread men during the holidays and never know what to do with it after.  It's good to know you can make these cookies year round.

Gingerbread Cookies with Orange Glaze

modified from Sweet Pea's Kitchen recipe here

Ingredients:

¾ cup packed dark brown sugar 

2 tablespoons grated zest from 1 orange 

3 cups all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

1 tablespoon ground ginger 

½ teaspoon ground cloves 

¾ teaspoon baking soda 

½ teaspoon salt 

12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened slightly 

¾ cup molasses 

4 tablespoons milk, divided 

2 cups confectioner's sugar 

2 tablespoons orange juice

Directions: 

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Place brown sugar and zest  in a bowl, mix together until combined.  Add flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and salt, mix until combined.  Sprinkle the butter evenly over the dry ingredients and mix until sandy- 5 minutes by hand, and you should see the dough become a little darker/yellower. Add molasses and two tablespoons of milk; mix dough until it comes together and is evenly moistened.  If still dry, add a little more milk.

4. Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten.  Place on prepared baking sheets spacing cookies 1 inch apart. Bake until centers are just set, 8 to 11 minutes. rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature. 

5. For the frosting: In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners sugar, orange juice, and remaining 2 tablespoons milk until smooth. Spread a heaping teaspoon of glaze on each cookie; let dry 30 minutes before serving.

We sent these cookies off to our cookie partner last week - hope she likes them as much as we did!  And a special thanks to Steph for organizing the cookie exchange!

About those Resolutions...

So Sally and I haven't been the best at keeping our New Years Resolutions, but we promise to do better!  In fact, just to show you how much better we can do here is a teaser collection of pictures of all the things we made over the holidays.  Hopefully we'll end up doing full posts on at least some of these.

my favorite Indian snack food: Pani Puri

 

Apple Walnut Bread

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

 

 

Apple Crisp

Happy New Year!

Sally and I would like to take this time to wish all of you a Happy New Year and to make a few New Years Resolutions:

1. More blog posts! The ratio of goodies baked to baked goodies posted is ridiculously high.
2. More pictures! Must not eat tasty treats before hauling out camera and waiting for good sunlight to get picture.
3. More comments? Sally and I haven't decided on whether or not to properly promote our blog.  We know this is unfair to our blog and the time and effort we put into it, but we wanted a trial run in order to prove that we could write a thoughtful and engaging blog.  There was never any doubt in my mind of this - Sally is a baking and writing and photography goddess, so how could we go wrong?  However, we may hold off on publicizing our blog more than the occasional few readers we already currently get simply because of our irregular schedules and the chance that there might not be blog posts for a long time... say a year or so.