I dried the peels overnight. This morning, I tasted a rather shriveled one, and I found it slightly tough. So, I gave up drying them any longer. I first put 1 tbsp sugar in an I-Wrap bag, added half the peels, closed the bag, and shook well. The peels looked like this. Still wet.
皮は一晩干しました。ちょっと縮んだのを味見すると、少し固くなっていたので、これ以上干すのは諦めました。アイラップに砂糖を大さじ１入れて、皮を半分入れ、袋を閉じて、よく振りました。皮はこんな感じになりました。まだ乾いてません。
Interestingly, the total weight of the peels was 400 g, the same weight they had before being dried.
面白いことに、皮の総重量は400 gで、干す前と同じになりました。
I thought I would skip tempering chocolate until I found an easy way to do so using a microwave on the Internet.
チョコのテンパリングは省略しようと思っていたのですが、電子レンジを使って簡単にする方法をネットで見つけました。
Break 60 g chocolate into small pieces, heat in a 500-W microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds, i.e., 90 seconds (for 90 x 0.8 = 72 seconds for a 600-W one and for 90 x 0.7 = 63 seconds for a 700-W one). Half the chocolate should still be solid. Mix with a rubber spatula. The temperature should be 28-30C for milk chocolate and 30-31C for black chocolate.
チョコ60 gを小さく割って、500 Wの電子レンジで１分30秒、つまり90秒（600 Wなら、90 x 0.7 = 72秒、700 Wなら、90 x 0.6 = 63秒）加熱する。全体のチョコのうち半分はまだ固形のまま。ゴムベラで混ぜる。温度はミルクチョコの場合28～30C、ブラックチョコの場合30～31C。
Before:
加熱前：
After:
加熱後：
I coated some of the peels with the chocolate.
皮を幾つかチョコでコーティングしました。
They didn't look delicious, so I gave up the idea of giving them to relatives and acquaintances.
美味しそうに見えないので、親戚や知り合いに贈ることは諦めました。
Close-up of one stick:
一つをクローズアップ：
After one bite:
一口食べた後：
Despite the ugly shape, it was really delicious!
形は醜いですが、本当に美味しいです！
By the way, on February 11 (national holiday in Japan), my daughter and I made cookies for Valentine's Day. This is the first batch. We made four batches in total, using the toaster oven as usual. They look rather childish for my 13-year-old daughter, but she said that everyone liked them last year and she wanted to make the same cookies again this year.
ところで、２月11日（日本では休日）、娘とバレンタインのクッキーを作りました。これは最初の分です。いつも通りオーブントースターを使って、全部で４回作りました。13歳の娘にしてはちょっと子供っぽく見えますが、去年みんな喜んだので、今年も同じクッキーを作りたかったそうです。
Hiroyuki: For the chocolate glaze (or ganache) to be smooth and not rough, you need to add some cream.
ReplyDeleteYou'll need pouring cream (can be found usually in plastic bottles, and you can distinguish it from whipped cream because it's a liquid and can be shaken / poured).
Bring the cream to a low simmer in a pan, and then pour the warm cream into the bowl containing the chocolate pieces. Stir with a spoon gently to help the chocolate finsih melting (try not to incorporate air bubbles into the mixture, because this can make the glaze feel not as smooth in the mouth).
Patissiers will add butter, castor sugar, and some even add corn syrup; to make the finished product look and sell better. But my philosophy at home is that it doesn't have to be and probably shouldn't be the same as in the shop; it should be easy, quick and healthy; so I omit them all at home.
Then just dip the mikan peels in the chocolate and lay aside to set! Dust half with kinako before they set if you like, or some sesame seeds :)
Oh, and a secret trick is to leave about 1cm on the end of the peel un-coated, so that you don't have melted chocolate on your fingers when you hold them and eat them. Can also dip half of a tomato or strawberry in the glaze if you've got left-over ganache.
Also, if you put more chocolate in the left-over ganache, you can also make chocolate truffles! Ganache for glaze, frosting and truffle pieces all have different chocolate:cream ratios.
If getting chocolate and cream is too much trouble, you could try making honeycomb instead! Super convenient. You'll only need honey, sugar, and baking soda, that's all!! You can see a recipe here: http://thecraftywagon.co.uk/homemade-crunchie-recipe/
You don't have to coat it with chocolate if you don't want to (note: they didn't put cream in their glaze, which is why it doesn't look smooth). Maybe Nigella's recipe is better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJN2S96-k2k
P.S. You can gently simmer the mikan peels in water if they are slightly bitter from the piths. Just make sure to cool them back down to room temperature before coating them with glaze.
Anynomous: Thanks for the links. Nigella's recipe is quite interesting (and simple). I hope I can try it some day.
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