Great homemade gifts: Truffles and Candied Orange Peel

If I were a good little blogger, I’d have posted about food gift ideas before Christmas, but instead I kept my silence so as to surprise my gift recipients, some of whom read this blog.  But the results have been a big hit, so keep these in mind for your future gift-giving needs!

A gift box of homemade truffles and candied orange peels

Since the economy’s in a downturn, most of us have been subject to two contradictory forces while doing our holiday shopping.  One force says “spend money!  Jump-start the economy!  We need you!”  This is what I’ve been hearing from coupon-laden emails in my inbox, unsolicited flyers in my mailbox, and ads every time I walk out the door.  It’s a little overwhelming (the thought of setting foot in a mall this month sends chills down my spine), and the message of spend-for-spending’s-sake seems to take all the nice things about Christmas and toss them in the trash.  That really turns me off.  So the second force, the one that says “save your money, do something creative and homemade and meaningful,” is the one that swayed me this year.  Since my making-things skills tend towards food, Nathan and I made candy for our holiday gifts.

Candy-making sounds hard, but the things we made (with one exception) were surprisingly easy if a little time-intensive, and all of them (with the same one exception) came out just about right.  They were all delicious.  And the recipients’ exclamations of “you made it yourself?  Really???” were rewarding in themselves.

On the list this year were chocolate-covered candied orange peels, three kinds of chocolate truffles (plain coated in cocoa, walnut coated in walnut bits, and orange dipped in chocolate), and salted chocolate caramel.

The caramel was the ambitious one, and the one that turned out less than stellar.  It tastes fine, and we’ve been carrying it around in our travels to share with people, but it hardened so much that we had to break it into bite-sized pieces with a cleaver, and couldn’t wrap it for gifts.  It melts in your mouth, but you have to get it into your mouth first!  The culprit, I think, was cooking it to too high a temperature, but whether the thermometer was wrong, or we weren’t using it correctly, or there was a typo in the recipe, or there was some environmental problem like too little humidity, I’m not sure.  (My recipe was from the Joy of Cooking.)  It’s tasty enough to be worth another attempt someday.

Candied orange peels, dipped in chocolate and set to dry

The candied orange peels are sort of a tradition for me – I used to make them in college when my co-op had a surplus of oranges, and when I made them for Christmas last year, they were met with such enthusiasm that I had to make them again.  (When your partner’s grandfather says you’ve made one of his favorite candies, how can you not make it again?)  Since they’re so easy and delicious, I may have to make another batch when I get home, just for me and Nathan!  Dipping them in chocolate is an optional extra step – I like them just fine on their own, but I also love anything that’s covered in chocolate.  I tend to melt some chocolate, dip the candy until the chocolate’s gone, and leave the rest plain.  One thing about this process is that it leaves you with a lot of orange innards that are hard to juice, what with having no peel, so you’re going to be eating a lot of messy orange sections.  (If you’ve found a creative use for the leftover orange, please share!)

The truffles were something I hadn’t tried before, but I was pleased at how easy they were.  It’s basically a ganache, made from cream and melted chocolate.  Most of the time and effort comes from shaping them.  They’re easy to modify just by stirring in fillings, and coating them with whatever you please.  And they’re utterly delicious.  I mean, really rich and delicious, every bit as good as the chocolate you put into them.  This is chocolate at its best.

Chocolate truffles, with a bit of orange flavor

Speaking of chocolate, make sure you use good quality chocolate for these.  Your candy will taste as good as the chocolate you use.  I’ve read books saying that you need to use the fanciest brands like Merkens or Guittard, but I found that the pound-sized bars of Belgian chocolate from Trader Joe’s worked just fine, and were very affordable.  I also read a lot about proper melting and tempering of chocolate – the idea is that by gently melting and then cooling chocolate before you dip candy in it, it will harden with a nice shine, and possibly keep better.  But, I had trouble getting the method to work.  By the time I cooled the chocolate to the point I’d heard described, it was thick and difficult to work with.  There’s probably a knack to it, but if so, I’m missing it.  My dipped candies tasted just fine without it, though I’m sure they would have looked a bit nicer if I’d gotten the tempering right.

For presentation, I found some boxes about 1.5 inches tall at the Container Store, along with mini muffin wrappers that were just right for the truffles.  I put handfuls of the orange peels in full-sized muffin wrappers.

Did you give (or receive) any homemade gifts this holiday?  Comment and tell us about them!

Candied Orange Peels

• 3-4 oranges (preferably organic, since you’ll be eating the peels)
• 1 cup sugar, plus extra for coating
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 to 1/3 lb good quality chocolate, for dipping

1. Remove the orange peels in large pieces, with the white pith attached.  The easiest way to do this, I’ve found, is to score the skin down to the fruit, in quarters, then peel the skin slowly away form the fruit.  Then slice it into the desired size pieces – I find that slicing them crosswise works well.  Some recipes will tell you to scrape away the pith, because it’s the naturally bitter part of the orange, but I find that a little extra cooking removes the bitterness, and the pith takes on a nice jelly consistency.
2. Stir together equal parts sugar and water, and bring to a simmer in a heavy saucepan.  Add the orange peel pieces – if the sugar syrup doesn’t cover them by about an inch, make more, using roughly equal proportions of sugar and water.
3. Simmer the peel for about an hour, until the pith becomes translucent.  You can tell when it’s done simply by tasting a bit – it should taste sweet and chewy, and not at all bitter.
4. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Scoop the orange peel out of the syrup with a slotted spoon, and spread them out across the wax paper.  Leave them there to dry for 12-24 hours, turning them occassionally so they dry evenly, until they are sticky but no longer wet.  You can save the syrup that remains in the pot – it will have a strong orange flavor, and goes well in hot chocolate or mixed drinks.
5. If desired, put the dried candy in a plastic bag with a few tablespoons of sugar, and toss to coat.  This makes them less sticky to store and eat.
6. If desired, coat the candy pieces in chocolate.  Break chocolate into small pieces and melt them over very low heat in a double boiler.  If you don’t have a double boiler, put about an inch of water in a heavy saucepan.  Find a bowl that sets tightly in the pot, and heat gently without letting the water boil hard; there should be no steam escaping, because the moisture will interfere with the chocolate solidifying again.  Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a bowl in the oven on the lowest setting – be careful not to over-heat.  Dip the candy pieces one at a time in the chocolate, and set on a fresh piece of wax paper to dry.

Chocolate truffles – adapted from Joy of Cooking

• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 12 oz good chocolate (I prefer dark chocolate)
• Your choice of flavorings and coatings (chocolate, cocoa, coconut, nuts, extracts, liquor, etc)

Note: these truffles are very receptive to fillings and flavorings, and you can coat them in whatever you like.  Add just a small amount (like 1/4 tsp) of flavorings like peppermint extract, or 1/2 cup of solid additions like nuts.  To add liquor, substitute it for 1/4 cup of the cream.  Make any additions before chilling the truffles.

1. Chop the chocolate into very small pieces.  We used the blender, but make sure your blender can handle it, and do just a little bit at a time.
2. Warm the cream over low heat, stirring frequently, until it is just beginning to steam.  Do not boil.
3. Pour the warm cream over the chocolate and stir gently until the chocolate melts and the mixture is well homogenized.  Stir in any additions (like peppermint extract or nuts) now.
4. Refrigerate for about 3 hours until the ganache mixture is solid.  Remove, and use a melon baller or (as I did) spoons and hands to shape it into balls.  Roll the truffles in your choice of coatings (I used cocoa on one kind, and finely-chopped toasted walnuts on another) or dip them in melted chocolate as described above.
5. Store truffles in the refrigerator in an airtight package.