There are many things you can use to create a makeshift double boiler!
By Claire Kelloway
The holiday season marks another treasured time of year: navel orange season. One winter night, I wanted to celebrate the citrus in a quick dessert for my friends. I love that sweet and bright combination of oranges and chocolate, but at the time I did not have chocolate chips or a double boiler for melting.
Instead, I found a squeeze packet of chocolate hazelnut spread and borrowed three chunks of my roommate’s Toblerone candy bar. I put these together in a small glass bowl, placed the bowl in a cake pan lined with water, and balanced that cake pan over a pot of boiling water. This makeshift water bath worked surprisingly well, and the “chocolates” melted smoothly despite the gritty hazelnut butter and nougaty-Toblerone triangles. In fact, my unorthodox pair gave the chocolate coating a nice nutty crunch that’s worth replicating.
This goes to show that you don’t need much to make a satisfying and impressive treat. So long as you heat chocolate slowly and indirectly, you could melt almost any chocolates for your own unique results. Just steer clear of white chocolate; it can be temperamental and not nearly as happy with oranges.
Love that winter citrus
Ingredients
2 to 4 oranges
1 ½ tablespoons chocolate hazelnut spread
¼ cup chocolate of choice (milk or dark)
Directions
- Peel the oranges and lay segments on a tray with wax paper.
- Melt chocolate and hazelnut spread together in a double boiler (or another indirect stove-top steam-warming contraption). If you heat chocolate too quickly it can get grainy, chunky, and “seize” up. Don’t add water or milk to your chocolate, if it seizes or does not melt, a few drops of warm oil can maybe save you.
- Drizzle melted chocolate over oranges with a spoon, let cool, and serve.
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