Chocolate orange sticks

 I have made chocolate orange sticks a few times now and they never fail to taste great.  They have a pungent bitter sweet taste that I just can't get enough of. They take some time to make but it is so worth the effort.  


Ingredients:
3-4 orange(peel only), peeled and cut into sticks. 
200g of sugar
200g plain dark chocolate
The orange peel needs to be cooked and softened but if they are boiled too long in the same water they become very bitter. Put the peel sticks in a pan, cover them with water and bring them to boil. As soon as the water begins to boil, pour it out and add new water. Repeat this twice. The third time add the sugar and simmer for 30 minutes or until the peel is soft. In one of my recipes it says to leave the peel over night in the sugar water, but I have never done this because I am not patient enough.  but I think leaving them over night or at least for a few hour will help to soften and sweeten them even more.  
 Pour out the excess water and place the orange peel sticks on a wire rack to cool and dry.

 When they have dried, melt the chocolate and dip all the orange peel sticks in one by one and place them on baking paper to cool.  When they are cool put them in the fridge for an hour or so to harden.  They melt very quickly so it is best to leave them in the fridge until they get eaten.  
I also had lots of strawberries so I dipped some of them in the left over chocolate.  Together they both made a very nice little treat to go with the coffee at our sewing group.