Candied Orange Peels

Extended Shelf life for: Oranges (peels, specifically)

Holy Oranges Batman! Our house has been the location of many an experiment and lately, oranges are finding themselves all over the place.

Being who I am, there's no way I can let that many orange peels pass through my hands without trying to figure out a creative, delicious use for them.

Rather than zesting the buggers and saving them for future use, like I did with my lemons, I decided it was time to candy some citrus peels and the results have been quite tasty...I'm sure, dipped in chocolate, they'd be even better, however we're just enjoying them as is.

Thanks to a beautifully titled blog: Use Real Butter, I used this recipe and turned out a delectable little treat!

Ingredients/Directions:

Remove the lovely little orange part of the 8 oranges from the bitter white pithy part of the orange. Since I have a hard-core juicer, I simply use a paring knife to slice off thin layers of the peel, finish removing the white pithy part and proceed to throw the the pulp into the juicer...if you want other suggestions, check out the original blog post...because it's late, I'm behind on blogging and...she did a real nice job explaining things ^^

Once you have lovely orange peels, throw them in a pot with cold water, bring to a boil, strain and repeat - you should do this a total of three times to eek out some of the bitterness.

With your oranges in the strainer, it's time to get into the real deal of making candied orange peels. Bring 3 cups of Sugar and 1 cup of Water to a boil over high heat until you reach 230 F. Add the orange peels, reduce to a simmer and simmer until translucent (30-75 minutes depending primarily on elevation). Remove peels from syrup and set on a rack to dry 4-5 hours or over night. If you wish to roll them in additional sugar at this point, you are more than welcome to do so. Otherwise, enjoy as is after a few hours or temper some chocolate and dip away!

Snicker Apple Tart

Having made delicious tortes for Thanksgiving (and subsequently Christmas Eve with the in-laws) I was eager to try out something new for 'belated Christmas' with my own folks. A bit of meandering on Pinterest soon turned up this recipe for Snicker Apple Tart and knew I had to give it a whirl.

I made mine in multiple steps, wanting to ensure the oven was ready and available for the holiday ham which means I left the cooked apples sitting in slightly underdone pie shells for more than a few hours which caused the crusts to be a bit soggy even after re-heating...this could be simply the time issue or an oven issue or an issue of impatience, however, were I slightly more prepared for those factors this would have been phenomenal, considering such factors, this was still damn-good ;)

Ingredients/Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Using a pre-made pie crust, roll out into a shallow pie plate or torte pan, prick with a fork and bake for about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel and core 2 large Apples to be arranged in the pre-cooked pie shells in whatever arrangement you so desire. Over the apples, drizzle 1/4 cup Heavy Whipped Cream mixed with 4 Tbsp. Brown Sugar. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup unsalted Peanuts. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

While baking, chop 2 Snickers Bars into bite sized pieces.

When 30 minutes have passed and pie is ready, remove from oven, sprinkle with Snicker pieces and drizzle with 1/3 cup Caramel Sauce. Let set a few minutes to get melty and mingled.

Enjoy.

Home-made Caramels: Note to Self

Note-to-self:

Making caramels at high-altitude isn't as easy as simply following the directions. While the caramels were delicious...they were too soft and a pain to wrap. Try again next time.

White Fudge with Lemon and Pecans

Extended Shelf Life for: Lemons

Being back in the land of Holiday snacking and gaining a few pounds in time for New Years Resolutions had me feeling a strong desire and deep urge to try my hand at some holiday candy-making. I've never done much in terms of fudge and I actually tried a few different recipes this Christmas, but high-altitude laughed in my face and my chocolate fudge was re-created into fudgy, no-bake cookies (which are always a win, so I laughed back, even harder, in the face of high altitude).

However, in the process of making candy at high altitude, I discovered this recipe for Easy White Fudge in one of my all-time favorite cookbooks: Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. Because we'd had an abundance of lemons at our door (aka, from the dumpster) in October, I'd learned a few tricks in regards to preserving lemons, and had a jar full of zest begging to be included with this fudge experiment, so I tweaked and altered, and what do you know? I came up with a fantastic, easy-to-make-regardless-of-altitude: White Lemon Fudge.

Ingredients/Directions:

Line a square baking dish with foil, butter or grease, set aside.

In a 2 quart saucepan cook and stir 3 cups White Chocolate Chips and 1 14oz. can of Sweetened Condensed Milk over low heat. When chocolate has melted, remove saucepan from heat and stir in 1/2 cup chopped Pecans, 2 tsp. Lemon Zest and 1 tsp. Vanilla. Cover and chill 2 hours.

Carefully remove foil from square pan, cut fudge into squares, store tightly covered for 1 week...if they'll last that long!

Chocolate Dipped Oranges

Extended Life for: Oranges


Having retrieved a fairly large amount of oranges, I did my best to make them go as far as they possibly could. From dried orange zest, orange juice for sauce and pancakes to these little treats for which I lost the final picture, oranges are a great and versatile fruit!

Ingredients:
1 large Navel Orange; peeled and sectioned
2 squares Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped
1 Tbs. Butter
Dash of Vanilla

Directions:
In a double boiler (or a small stainless steal bowl placed in a saucepan of boiling water) melt chocolate. Remove chocolate from heat stir in margarine and vanilla. Dip orange sections in chocolate then place on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Cool oranges in fridge for 15-20 minutes, enjoy!