Thursday, February 2, 2012

Healing Foods: Honeybell Orange Juice and Candied Orange Rind

January marks the month for Honeybell Oranges. These delicious, juicy oranges are only available at the first of the year for a very short time. We ordered a few cases of them for our office to give everyone some much needed vitamin C and a delicious treat during a long, post-holiday month.

I brought some of these beauties home to make freshly squeezed orange juice for part of my two week juice fast (more on that later) and to give the girls a glass of vitamin packed goodness in the morning. I also zested the skin of the orange to use in salad dressings. Even the zest was delicious, so I decided to candy some of the rind in a sugar syrup (a very English thing to do--my mother loves candied citrus) and--once cooked--dip the candied orange rind into a semisweet chocolate. It makes for a heavenly, bitter/sweet treat that provides additional vitamin C and dietary fiber along with a bit of vitamin A and calcium.

Easy to make and an elegant, delicious sweet to eat--these are great to serve as a light, sweet treat with tea or coffee.

Candied Orange Peel
Cut and quarter 4-5 oranges, removing the fruit. Thinly slice the skin quarters lengthwise. Bring 21/2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water to a boil, add orange peel and reduce heat to medium/low. Let orange rinds simmer in the sugar syrup, stirring occasionally, for about 1.5 hours. With a slotted spoon, remove orange rinds from the syrup and place on a rack to cool. Let sit for 24 hours. Melt 2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels. Holding the rind at one end, dip the rind and cover one half of the length of the rind with melted chocolate. Place on a sheet of tin foil or wax paper to cool. Refrigerate 5 minutes to allow chocolate to harden, then peel from paper and place in an airtight container. Refrigerate until ready to eat.