Crystallised chocolate orange slices

If I was stuck on a desert island and could only choose 5 foods to have with me (you never know, it might happen) they’d be:

1. French bread
2. Cheese (& butter – they count as one)
3. Eggs (& Heinz ketchup – life without ketchup isn’t worth thinking about)
4. Bananas
5. And Terrys chocolate orange! (TCO)

I LOVE chocolate orange, you can’t beat it. It’s the combination dreams are made of. I’ll always head straight for the orange truffles in any deli. Yes purrrlease! I love Christmas when there are special editions of TCO, popping candy, toffee, mini versions, dark chocolate…. Plus it’s part of a healthy balanced diet, chocolate is the slightly naughty part, and orange is the good part! :) AND it’s probably one of your five a day.

It’s Mother’s Day tomorrow and I’ve been trying to save money recently. My Granny can be tricky to buy for, and the presents she’s been happiest with are usually homemade. So when I came across Snack to the Future’s divine looking chocolate covered orange slices (below) I decided to give them a go.

She’s perfected the recipe on her blog, but it’s basically 1 cup of sugar, 1.5 cups of water, enough orange slices for 1 layer in a large flat pan, chocolate to finish them off and a smattering of chunky salt.

When boiling, it gives the kitchen a nice orangey aroma. Remember to turn the slices over every now and again and when the sugary water starts turning thick and bubbling a slightly darker colour…it tastes YUMMY! (Be careful of burning your tongue! I learnt that the hard way) It took my slices about 1hr 30mins until they were ready to dry out.

I’ve just moved house and didn’t have all my usual baking things to hand, I didn’t have a drying rack so popped them on a baking tray by the window and left them to dry out overnight. Usually they’d be quicker to dry.

I used 4 large oranges (and 3! pans to simmer), which made about 26 slices and can fit around 9-10 in a jar.

Dipping the sticky oranges into chocolate was trickier than it sounds! I let the chocolate cool too much and it looks a bit lumpy, also the segments are sooo sweet! Maybe I could’ve done with using a tad less sugar, or taking them out of the pan earlier.  I used a bar and a half (270g) of bourneville dark chocolate, and the tanginess of the salt toned down the sweetness.

I didn’t want to give the orange slices to my G’ma in an old plastic takeaway box (probably smelling of garlic chicken); I bought some mason jars from Poundland (it’s my parents birthdays coming up soon… Guess what they’ll be getting!)

I also thought about wrapping the slices in clear plastic with some nice ribbon, a gift box covered in PVA glue + sequins, or baking paper and hipster twine.

I used a wine glass to cut out some circular greaseproof paper to pop between the slices. The segments last for about 2 weeks in an air-proof container. Voila!