Candied chocolate-covered orange peel and clementines

When we were in Chicago at Christmas, I bought some chocolate-covered orange peel on a whim. While I'm not a fan of dark chocolate, I do make exceptions when it's combined with orange.

So anyway, I got to thinking: how hard can it possibly be to candy oranges? Answer: it's not. It's reallllllly easy. I've done it three times so far. The first time, I learned the importance of keeping the lid on while the peels simmer in the syrup. While the orange hard candy I inadvertently made wasn't bad, the texture was wrong.

This time, my third try, I had a bunch of clementines I was going to toss because they were so tart. I figured candying them should tame the flavor, and covering them with chocolate couldn't possibly hurt the situation. A correct assessment.

So I hacked up a bunch of clementines, boiled them in sugar water (my simple syrup ended up being a 2:1 ratio of water to sugar) and put them in a warm oven to let them dry out thoroughly. I candied yesterday and dipped this morning. (I did the orange peel in a separate pot, since the timing is different.)

Things turned out pretty good. I have a whole lot of the little critters, but I s'pose it was a better use of the clementines than throwing them out. And I have a whole different take on orange peel now: it's like the best part of the orange! Don't toss that! The flesh of the orange can be pretty crummy sometimes, but the peel is consistently good.

So...tips for candying oranges and orange peel:

• Small/thin slices. This lets the syrup penetrate better.
• Cooling rack (like what you use for cookies) on top of a rimmed cookie sheet. This setup lets the syrup drip through, and the pan catches the drips.
• Dry in a warm oven. I heated mine to 200 and turned it off three times over the course of six hours. Just gives the slices somewhere warm and dry to dry out. (Also, protected from foraging hands and off your countertops.)
• When you're simmering the slices in syrup, COVER the pot. The lid can be cocked a bit, but don't just leave it open unless you aspire to have orange hard candy.
• If you're dipping in chocolate, don't overheat the chocolate when you're melting. Low heat, go slow.
• Parchment paper makes everything easier.