Peppered Orange Florentines

Caramelised orange peel, fragrant pepper and dark chocolate, created from an orange too beautiful to waste

By Lisa McLean | Culinary Repertoire

These Peppered Orange Florentines transform fresh orange peel into crisp, caramelised shards flavoured with black, white and Sichuan peppercorns. Dipped in dark chocolate, they are an elegant confection and a delicious way to use the whole orange.

Peppered Orange Florentines

These florentines began with a perfectly formed orange I ate for lunch. I cut it in half and dressed the juicy flesh with pomegranate molasses, pepper-infused vinegar, fresh mint, salt and freshly ground pepper. It was a taste sensation: sweet, tart, fragrant and peppery, with the mint bringing a lovely freshness to every spoonful.

Once I had eaten the orange, I was left with two beautiful, deeply fragrant shells. The peel was so thick, bright and unblemished that I could not bring myself to throw it away. It seemed wasteful to discard something that still had so much flavour to offer.

There was no plan beyond that. On the spur of the moment, I finely sliced the peel, put it into a jar and covered it with caster sugar, thinking I might make an orange cheong and find a use for it later. I left it to develop for a few days while the sugar slowly drew out the moisture and aromatic oils, creating a glossy orange syrup.

Then, as so often happens in my kitchen, I changed direction.

I tipped the whole lot into a saucepan and added about a tablespoon of a pepper mixture that happened to be sitting on the bench. It was a blend of coarsely ground black, white and Sichuan pepper left over from another dish. There had been so much pepper cooking in my kitchen that month that I could no longer remember exactly what I had prepared it for.

A generous glug of my pepper-infused vinegar went in next, returning the peel, in a way, to the flavours that had dressed the orange in the first place. I cooked everything together until it became thick and sticky, rather like a coarse orange marmalade, then spread it over a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Into the oven it went for somewhere between thirty and forty minutes. I was not watching the clock so much as the sugar, waiting until it had caramelised and the orange peel was suspended in a thin sheet of amber toffee.

Once cool, it became crisp enough to break into irregular pieces. At first, I imagined using the shards to decorate a cheesecake. Then I decided to dip them in dark chocolate, which turned out to be an exceptionally good decision.

These are not traditional florentines. They are wilder and more accidental: shards of candied orange peel, bitter chocolate and fragrant pepper, each one a little different from the last. They have kept beautifully in the refrigerator and continue to delight me each time I open the container and treat myself to one.

Florentine shards ready for a chocolate dip