Candied orange peel

Continuing with my Christmas hamper preparation, I made candied orange peel. It was a lot more simple than I thought it would be and they taste delicious! Remember those little cake decorating jellied citrus slices? They kind of taste like those, but they're real fruit! There is some discussion about how many times you need to boil the peel (each time reduces the bitterness). I boiled them three times using navel oranges and they turned out well - sweet but with a slight bitter twist in the rind. I originally thought the pith would be the bitter part, but that turns wonderfully sweet and the rind retains the orangey bitterness.

I must have a thing about oranges... (chocolate orange creams and chocolate-orange-fondant chocolates). I had to resist covering these in chocolate too!

Candied orange peel

3 navel oranges
3 cups caster sugar (plus extra for rolling the strips in later)
1 cup water

Score the oranges into quarters and peel. Reserve the peel. Cut the oranges into halves and squeeze out the juice (we had this fresh orange juice with breakfast the next day - yum!). Cut the peel into strips and add to a pan of cold water. Bring the water to the boil and boil for 5-10 minutes. Drain off the water. Repeat this blanching process three times to reduce the bitterness in the pith.

After draining the last lot of water, add the sugar and 1 cup water to the pan with the piths. Try to avoid stirring, although it may be necessary to ensure that all the orange peel strips are covered. Bring the sugar syrup to the boil and simmer for 1 hour.

I found towards the end of the simmering that some of my oranges had stuck to the bottom of the pan and coloured a bit more than I would have liked (i.e. burnt slightly!) so check on them towards the end.

Drain the syrup off the peel into a bowl and after leaving to cool for a couple of minutes (any longer and they start to set and stick together) roll each peel strip in sugar and set aside on a cooling rack covered in greaseproof paper to cool.

Store in an airtight container for 4 weeks.

Chocolate orange creams

I can see that lots of readers have been enjoying the chocolate-orange-fondant chocolates post and it is my favourite flavour combination, so I have come up with another orangey chocolatey creation!

Thinking about Christmas gifts again (sorry family!), I thought that mint creams would keep well, since they're just icing sugar and water with a bit of peppermint extract. Then, I decided I would use the peppermint essence for the marshmallows and use delicious orange oil to flavour these creams. I think I made them a little big because I felt a bit sick after eating two in a row (or maybe that's just because I ate two in a row...). You could also make them any shape you like – holly leaves or star shapes would be suitably festive!

Chocolate orange creams


Icing sugar
A few tablespoons water
Liquid orange essence
Food colouring (if you like)
Dark chocolate (for decorating)


I know this recipe isn't very precise, but I find the best way to make them is to tip about half a box of icing sugar (which seems like an awful lot, and is probably about 500g) into a bowl and start adding water, slowly mixing to a very thick paste. I have found in the past that if I add the water too confidently, I have to add endless amounts of icing sugar, so I think it is best to just get started and see where you end up – do add the water slowly and very sparingly.

Add the food colouring and a few drops of orange essence. It will come together so that you can roll it out on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and then cut out into shapes. Leave the creams to set on a sheet of greaseproof paper for at least an hour. They will harden up over time.

Melt the chocolate (I used 50g to decorate about 10 creams, but ended up wasting a lot of it) and use it to decorate the creams. I think next time I'm going to cover the surface in chocolate, like a biscuit.

Minty marshmallows

In my effort to find a home-made Christmas gift that will keep well and look pretty (sorry family, this year's gift may not be a surprise!), I tried making marshmallows this weekend. I think they turned out very well – I say think because I don't actually like marshmallows. There's just something about the strange texture and intense sweetness that puts me off. Hubby enjoyed them very much, so they must be good!

I was intrigued by the process of making something out of egg whites, sugar and gelatine, that turns into marshmallow texture. It was a lot of fun to make.

There's a scary amount of gelatine in this recipe but it does make a huge amount of marshmallow, so I'm sure it all works out in the end. You may want to halve the recipe to make a smaller quantity (although I haven't tested that, so let me know how you get on if you try it!).

Minty marshmallows
Leaf gelatin and liquid glucose is available in Waitrose. Recipe adapted from here.

9 sheets sheets leaf gelatine

450 g sugar

1 tbsp liquid glucose

200 ml water

2 large egg whites

1 tsp peppermint extract

icing sugar

cornflour

Food colouring (I used pink and purple to get the colour shown)

Lightly oil a shallow baking tray, about 30 x 20cm and dust it with sieved icing sugar and cornflour. Soak the gelatine in 140ml cold water. 

Put the sugar, glucose and water into a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boiland continue cooking for about 12–15 minutes until the mixture reaches 127 degrees Celsius on a sugar thermometer. When the syrup is up to temperature, carefully slide in the softened gelatine sheets and their soaking water. The syrup will bubble up so take care not to burn yourself. Pour the syrup into a metal jug.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, preferably with an electric whisk in a mixing bowl. Continue whisking while pouring in the hot syrup from the jug. The mixture will become shiny and start to thicken. Add the peppermint extract and food colouring and continue whisking for about 5–10 minutes, until the mixture is stiff and thick enough to hold its shape on the whisk.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth with a wet palette knife if necessary and leave for at least 1 hour to set.

Dust the work surface with icing sugar and cornflour. Loosen the marshmallow around the sides of the tray with a palette knife, and then turn it out on tothe dusted surface. My marshmallow did not want to come out of the tin, so I cut it into strips and coaxed each strip out of the tin. Cut into squares and roll in the sugar and cornflour. Leaveto dry a little on a wire rack.

Store the marshmallows in an airtight container  (I'm experimenting to see how long they last).

Cinnamon toffee apples

I had a brainwave this afternoon - why not make cinnamon toffee apples?! It's already an excellent combination, and toffee really is a lot easier to make than people make out. These turned out fabulously.

The past 2 years I've wanted to eat a toffee apple while watching fireworks and I searched high and low among the marshmallow and Haribo stalls (what's the world coming to? Not even candy floss was available!) at the fireworks/funfair and I could not find a toffee apple. This year Hubby managed to find them in the supermarket buried among Halloween things - perhaps it was because I was looking at the wrong time... Anyhow, now I have my beloved break-your-teeth toffee apples with a glorious twist!

Cinnamon toffee apples

I'm not sure I'd recommend using treacle but I had run out of golden syrup. I think the treacle would lower the boiling point so you'd have to guess when it's going to make toffee which perhaps isn't that safe!


Makes 4 toffee apples


200g caster sugar
50 ml water
1 large teaspoon treacle (but preferably golden syrup)
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Place the apples in a bowl or large pan and pour boiling water over them. Take them out and dry thoroughly. This helps to remove the natural wax coating on the apples, which enables the toffee to stick better. Stick a lolly stick (or in my case, a cake fork!) into the apples and place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Mine stuck to the paper, so there's probably a better non-stick option. You could grease the paper but only put the apples on once they're covered in toffee.

Add the sugar, water and treacle to a pan and agitate (don't stir) over a high heat. When it is all liquid insert a sugar thermometer and watch the temperature creep up to Hard Crack (or just under 150 degrees Celsius). This will take about 10 minutes. While keeping one beady eye on your pan (and keeping all children and pets out of the kitchen – hot sugar really is very hot) fill a large bowl (or another pan) with cold water and set it next to your sugar pan. You can dip the base of the pan into this if the toffee gets too hot. Once sugar is hot, the temperature keeps rising until you cool it with something - otherwise it can burn.

Add the cinnamon and stir it in quickly. When the toffee has reached the right temperature, dip the apples in, one by one, and place on the baking sheet. Leave to cool for 20 mins.

Chicken salad

We've been having unseasonably warm weather recently (even though it's October, temperatures have reached 29 degrees celcius!), and I try not to complain, but it has been a bit too hot at times. I feel able to say this because I hardly ever complain about it being too cold in the winter (what's not to like about wrapping up warm in layers of clothing, and having an excuse to stop and get a hot chocolate, and having rosy wind-beaten cheeks and toasty feet in boots and curling up under a blanket to watch a film on tv at 4pm because it's already dark?). Mmmmm winter...

Anyway, I made this chicken salad because it was too hot to cook anything else. I was pretty impressed with the results, if I do say so myself. My inspiration came vaguely from Pret's Italian Chicken Salad and a Caesar salad (and whatever was in the fridge!). This recipe looks a little complex, with a lot of ingredients, but they're all things you will probably have in the house and once you get going it'll all come together nicely.

Chicken salad
Serves 2

2 chicken breasts
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
Juice of half a lemon
Black pepper


70 g quinoa with a little vegetable bouillon
1 little gem lettuce (and other salad leaves of your choice)
30 g butternut squash (or a couple of thick slices)
A handful of radishes
Cherry tomatoes
Olives
Parmasan cheese


For the dressing:
3 tablespoons low-fat yoghurt
A few teaspoons lemon juice (to taste)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Add the quinoa to a pan of boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes (I didn't overcook it this time!) with a little vegetable bouillon.

Flatten the chicken (I cover it in clingfilm and then hammer it with a rolling pin) then add to a frying pan with the oil and lemon juice and a good sprinkle of black pepper. Fry until it is cooked through (5–8 minutes). The lemon juice caramelises beautifully on the outside of the chicken. You may need to turn the heat up at the end to get it really brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the salad. Slice the radishes (I used a mandolin, which my sister-in-law bought me before I even knew the fun that could be had with it!) and the olives and toss with the salad leaves – I did this in two serving bowls to save on washing-up. Chop the butternut squash and put into a microwaveable bowl with a little water and cling film over the top to seal it. Microwave on full power for 3 minutes. Add the butternut squash to the salad.

Drain any water off the quinoa and add the tomatoes (I have a thing about cold tomatoes from the fridge - I think it's to do with my sensitive teeth) to warm them up. Then add to the salad bowls.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. When the chicken is done, place one piece on each salad, drizzle all over with dressing and shave parmasan on the top (I used the same mandolin again).