Orangettes

Orangettes: candied orange peels dipped in chocolate.  See also: a reason for living.
Seriously, it's hard to stop at eating just one of these beautiful treats.  The orange peels are bright and sweet, tempered by the bitterness of dark chocolate.  I made these on a whim over the weekend (John Paul was out of town and a bag of oranges was less than $4 at Trader Joe's), and am so glad to discover how easy they are!

I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe, which worked wonderfully with a few tweaks.  After reading some comments from her original post, I blanched the peels a total of three times, each time using a fresh pot of boiling water.  I also left the peels to dry for 12 hours after simmering them in the simple syrup, which made them much easier to handle when dipping into chocolate. 

I found it easiest to score the orange peel about 8 times down the sides, peel away the pith, then slice into strips.  Also, I used organic navel oranges to avoid the wax sprayed on to maintain freshness.

They're so wonderful!  Slightly bittersweet, with a crunchy chocolate coating.  If you need a tasty party treat, I highly recommend orangettes!