Holiday Baskets

***This post was sitting in my draft folder for a long time--finally posting***

I made a few of these to give to some coworkers this week and might make a few more for friends/family if I have time this weekend. The basket consists of Orangettes (chocolate covered candied orange peel), Chocolate Chip Cookies with sea salt (I posted the recipe here), Pecan-Walnut Snowdrop Cookies (aka Mexican Wedding Cookies/Russian Tea Cookies and a whole bunch of other names), Rocky Road Bites and Truffled Thyme Cheese Crackers (a recipe I found on another blog).

Orangettes

6 oranges
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup water
Additional water to boil
4-5 oz good quality Dark Chocolate (not too dark though maybe 60-70%)

I am usually pretty lazy when it comes to peeling oranges when making candied orange peel and will often just take a potato peeler to it--this time I took my time.

Quarter the oranges and cut each quarter in half again. With a pairing knife carefully cut the peel away from the flesh of the orange (I left a lot of pith at this stage). Put the peels in a large bowl of cold water with some koser salt 1/2tsp-1tsp (I didn't measure). Let them sit for a few minutes and then take them out one by one and cut off most of the pith I left a little bit on. Cut each peel into 1/4 inch (width) slices and return to water. Fill a large pot with cold water, add peels and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Let boil five minutes and drain. Repeat process with new cold water, bring to a boil, let boil five minutes then drain. Let dry overnight (sometimes I toss in sugar for a crunchy texture but tend to prefer it without). Melt chocolate in the microwave in 30 sec increments making sure to stir each time--don't overcook. Or melt over a double boiler. Dip the orange peels in the chocolate 3/4 of the way then place on a piece of wax paper, repeat until all of the peels are covered in chocolate.