{"id":1004,"date":"2010-11-30T16:09:09","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T00:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2024-02-18T13:42:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T21:42:49","slug":"everythings-better-dipped-in-chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/chocolate-recipes\/everythings-better-dipped-in-chocolate\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything’s better dipped in chocolate"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently had an experience at a friend\u2019s open studio that reminded me that the desire to create daring, exotic chocolate delicacies lies deep within the heart of a few of us chocolate lovers. We look for ways to use chocolate to create unusual desserts and tasty treats.<\/p>\n

Liza Dalby, author of Geisha<\/em> and Tale of Murasaki, <\/em>had brought a plate of homemade delicacies to share. Liza\u2019s years-long immersion into Japanese culture no doubt primed her for aesthetic food presentations. At first glance I wasn\u2019t sure what they were. A closer look revealed colorful, chocolate-dipped orange peels\u2026stunning squiggles on a green plate…a real taste-bud adventure.<\/p>\n

Liza remembers them only as decorations on the table during the holidays. The combination of tart and sweet didn\u2019t appeal to her as a child. But years later some friends brought some over, and she thought to herself, \u201cWhat an intense little nibble!\u201d<\/p>\n

Her memory flashed back to those hand-dipped, homemade, tart treats from her childhood\u2026and she knew she had to recreate them. And let\u2019s face it \u2014 dipping almost anything in chocolate makes it fabulous!<\/p>\n

\"citrus<\/a>Citrus rinds by themselves are usually used for punctuation \u2014 like the \u201ctwist\u201d on a cocktail or the \u201czest\u201d in orange bread. Pairing a pomelo or orange rind with chocolate is something that would only occur to a daring few. But boil them in a sugar syrup, and the bitterness that we associate with these colorful outer skins fades away, leaving a tangy sweetness which, when dipped in dark chocolate, exposes the taste-buds to a heavenly experience.<\/p>\n

Liza shared her recipe with me, chuckling that I had asked her for it rather than either of her two \u201cfoodie\u201d daughters who typically hold the limelight in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Chocolate-Dipped Orange Peels<\/h2>\n

\"boiling<\/a> 1. Bring 4 \u00bd cups sugar and 1 \u00bd cups water to a boil, and keep bubbling on low heat.<\/p>\n

2. Meanwhile cut 4 navel oranges nose and tail; then cut into quarters and remove orange meat; cut rind into strips.<\/p>\n

\"cut<\/a><\/p>\n

\"orange<\/a>
\n3. Put rinds into saucepan; cover with cold water and bring to a boil.<\/p>\n

4. Cook 5-10 minutes, strain, and discard water.<\/p>\n

5. Put boiled rinds into the bubbling syrup.<\/p>\n

\"spicing<\/a>
\n6. Cook 15-20 minutes; remove rinds and put into a Ziplock bag with sugar, mango powder, ginger, and rosemary; and shake well. [NOTE: We made several spice variations as well, such as cinnamon & cardamom, lavender, ginger & mace, and clove & allspice.]<\/p>\n

\"drying<\/a> 7. Spread rinds on cookie sheets, and let dry 1 day.<\/p>\n

\"scharffen<\/a> 8. When rinds are dry, melt 6 oz. of dark chocolate of your choice in saucepan.<\/p>\n

[VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: If you plan to give your chocolate-dipped orange slices as gifts or serve them to others, you must temper your chocolate<\/a><\/strong> as you heat it. Otherwise, the cooled chocolate will develop “bloom,” white-ish markings that resemble blooming flowers, but are not as attractive as they sound. Tempering the chocolate will make it nice and shiny.]<\/p>\n

\"finished<\/a> 9. Dip rinds halfway in chocolate. Place on waxed paper to dry.<\/p>\n

Whoever thought of dipping sweetened citrus rinds in chocolate had to have been a culinary dare devil. But the combination \u2014 like pepper and strawberries \u2014 is oddly pleasing and worth a try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Try your hand at making chocolate treats for the holidays or any day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[6,380,144,659,39],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chocolate-recipes","tag-darkchocolate","tag-diy","tag-hand-dipped","tag-orange","tag-recipe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41696,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions\/41696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}