Orange chocolates

Today I decided to attempt making orange chocolates. This is my mother's recipe; I made them a few times with her when I was younger. Let me rephrase that: This is almost my mother's recipe; I have cleaned it up a bit. My mother's recipes are really meant for just my mother and are indecipherable to the average person. Steps are frequently skipped, ingredients are sometimes not listed and then appear randomly in the procedure, etc. (My sister and I once spent an entire evening trying to translate her Babka recipe, who knows if it would make an edible loaf of bread.)

1 package (11.5 ounces) milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
2 1/2 teaspoons orange extract

Coating:
1 cup milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening


Place package of milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips in mixing bowl. In sauce pan, bring cream and orange peel to a gentle boil. Let stand one minute. Whisk with chips until smooth. Add orange extract.

I had to stick this in the microwave for 30 extra seconds, the whipping cream/orange peel mixture melted some of the chocolate chips, but not all.



Cover and chill for 35 minutes or until thickened. Beat 10-15 seconds or just until lightened. Spoon rounded teaspoons onto wax papered baking sheet. Chill for five minutes.

This is the roundest I could make them. They are rather lumpy. I stuck them in the freezer for a few minutes because our apartment tends to be a little warm and I knew that the colder they were, the easier it would be to work with them later.

 Shape into balls.

In microwave, melt shortening and milk chocolate chips together. Stir until smooth.

Be careful! Don't leave the shortening/chocolate chip mixture in the microwave too long, or it will burn. I put it on for a minute and checked/stirred the mixture every 15 seconds or so.

Dip into chocolate coating mixture. Place on wax paper to harden. Store in refrigerator.

For whatever reason, I cannot get this picture to post right-side-up. As you can see, they don't look store-quality (in fact, they look kind of lumpy). However, they have gotten the Significant Other seal of approval. Also, I'm going to forewarn you: these are messy to make!

And to determine cost:

1 package milk chocolate chips: On sale for $2 at the local grocery store.

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips: Roughly half the package, $1.

3/4 whipping cream: $2.99 for 16 ounces, I used 6 ounces. $1.13.

1 teaspoon grated orange peel: We had an orange sitting in our fridge, which was brought over by my boyfriend's best friend for some reason. Free.

2 1/2 teaspoons orange extract: What was originally $5.29 was knocked down to $4 with the grocery store's rewards card; the cashier gave me a $1 off coupon. $3 for 1 fluid ounce (or 6 teaspoons), 2 1/2 teaspoons cost $1.20.

1 cup milk chocolate chips: $1.

2 tablespoons shortening: 42 ounces of the store brand shortening was $4 if I remember correctly. 2 tablespoons is one ounce, we will round this off to $.10.

Total cost: $5.43

Christmas DIY adventures

Some of the Christmas DIY ideas that will make an appearance soon in @ Home With Heather:

Cutout cookies
Wine jelly (from The Simple Dollar)
Orange chocolates
Christmas cards
Magnets (from Not Martha)
Lightbulb ornaments
and my Diabolical Plan at some point (which I would post, but some surprises cannot be ruined ahead of time)

I'm pretty excited about these endeavors for a few reasons:

1.  Frugality--I discussed this with my father tonight, and broke it down something like this: I could buy six people gifts at $10 a pop, or I could make six jars of jelly:

1 bottle of wine: Approximately $10.
1/2 cup lemon juice: A 32 oz. bottle of my local supermarket's store brand costs $2.49.  1/2 cup = 4 oz., so 1/8 of $2.49 would be roughly $.32.
1 package dry pectin: A grocery shopping adventure in and of itself; I could not find this anywhere on the shelves. After two phone calls to determine where I should be looking, my worst fears were confirmed: this is a seasonal item and canning season, apparently, is over (you should normally be able to find this on the top shelf with the gelatin or in the produce section). However, my mother was kind enough to dig out a package from her pantry for me (FrugalMom stockpiles groceries). Pectin cost me $0.
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar: 4 pounds of the store brand was on sale for $2. However, pounds are a unit of weight and cups are a unit of volume. Using this handy dandy conversion chart I was able to determine that 4 1/2 cups is about 2 pounds, costing me $1 (I hope the lucky recipients of this jelly have great dental insurance).
Mason jars: Essential for the canning of the stuff; I recently saw six for $10.79 at the local grocery store. However, FrugalMom was trying to sell a bazillion of them at her garage sale and I know there are many left over. I will try to have these gifted, or buy them at a discount from her. I'm going to leave these out of the equation for now.

Total cost: $11.32

2.  Gifts with heart--I'm not just doing this because of the Scrooge factor. In Thoughts about Christmas I expressed concern about the marriage of the holiday with consumerism. My real wish is to create something that friends and family will enjoy and might remember in the future. I know some of my favorite gifts didn't add to somebody's bottom line; they were things that somebody put love into.

3. Personal growth--Growing up, the kitchen was strictly Mom's domain. Intruders were scrutinized. As a result, I never fostered an interest in cooking or baking (side note: I feel no animosity towards my mother; she's pretty awesome). Perhaps interest in a new hobby will be sparked, or I can at least develop some fundamental skills.