I love making one thing and having this create ingredients for other treats.

Here, we take a bag of oranges, some sugar, brandy, chocolate, and time, and turn it into jam, syrup, candy, and brandy…and that’s just a beginning…once the orange peels are finished flavouring the brandy, they can be sugared again and saved to make fruitcake.

Chocolate covered candied orange peels, marmalade, orange syrup, & orange brandy

You get 4 separate types of gifts for 10 or more people depending on how you package them.

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Course: Confections, Dessert

Servings:

Equipment

Knife
Juicer
Sauce pan (To safeguard against boiling over, the pot should have at least 6 quarts of volume)
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons

Ingredients

10 Organic oranges or lemons, or limes
9 cups sugar
9 cups water and juice from the oranges combined 9 cups total
1 pound quality chocolate

Instructions

Peels – step one

Soak oranges for 15 minutes in a pot of water that has had vinegar added to it in a 4:1 ratio (water to vinegar) This will help minimize spoilage by killing off bacteria and removing dirt
Rinse and cut oranges in half
Squeeze out the juice and remove all the fruit and membrane from the peel
Slice the pieces of peel into strips

Marmalade – step one

Separate the seeds from the orange pulp
Slice the pulp, measure it, and reserve to make marmalade

Syrup – step one

Combine juice and water for a total of 9 cups (assuming you are making only a single volume of this recipe)
Bring the liquid to a boil and add the sugar, stirring to dissolve completely.
Cook the syrup and peels together in a large pot at a temperature between 350º – 400º for 90 minutes
Do not cover it while it is cooking and keep an eye on it, especially if your range does not permit specifying the absolute temperature of your element. After cooling this mixture, refrigerate it for 3-5 days in a covered container.

Peels step two

Remove the peels with a slotted spoon, and dry them on either parchment paper or a clean cloth. (I have a stack of white restaurant serviettes for food preparation, as they show clearly when they are beyond safe use)

Marmalade step two

Strain the syrup
Measure an amount of syrup equal to the reserved fruit and combine the two, cooking a 350º – 400º for an additional 20 minutes
Pour the marmelade into prepared jars or bottles, seal them and boil for 10 minutes.

Syrup step two

Pour the additional syrup into bottles or jars, seal and process for 10 minutes

Peels final

Melt chocolate at a temperature of 120º – 130º
Dip orange slices in melted chocolate, coating thoroughly
Cool the coated peels on a tray lined with tin foil or waxed paper
Alternatively or additionally, skip the drying stage for all or some of the peels and toss these in granulated sugar

Brandy

Put 1/4 c of the candied peels into a quart mason jar and fill the jar with brandy
Let this sit for at least a week before straining
Add more oranges if you want a stronger flavour, more brandy if you want less
The longer you let this sit, the better it gets
If you were motivated to go the distance after extracting the peels, you could dip them in chocolate as well for a nice boozy chocolate covered orange peel.

Notes

You will end up with:

Approximately 1.5 lbs of dipped peels (including the weight of the chocolate)
3 cups of marmalade
7-8 cups syrup
20 oz orange brandy

Notes:

A combination of sugared and chocolate covered peels makes a very nice gift package
The same recipes may be made with either lemon, or lime
To prepare the bottles, boil them in water for 10 minutes.
To preserve the syrup, water bath can it at a rolling boil for 10 minutes.
Keep the syrup refrigerated once opened.
Use a high-quality chocolate bar, the type you don’t normally see in convenience stores.

WARNING: Syrup easily can boil over and if it touches your skin, it will cause bad burns. Do not allow children to do this alone

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Chocolate-covered candied orange peels, marmalade, and orange syrup