Tag Archives: blood oranges

Chocolate Blood Orange Cupcakes

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Julie • 14 Comments

I promise this will be my last blood orange recipe (well…I take that back – there might be one more. Or maybe two). Citrus season in the non-citrus parts of the country seems to fly by, although that’s probably all in my head since I feel the same way about brussels sprout season and artichoke season. I try to make the most of the few weeks where blood oranges are at the forefront of the grocery shelves, full of flavor and promising a fleeting but memorable experience. I also wanted to do something special with the last of my blood orange curd, and in my house, cupcakes = special.

Chocolate/orange is one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations. When I was younger, my uncle and grandmother would send a huge box of gifts down from upstate New York at Christmastime. I always looked forward to that box arriving, first and foremost because I was an extremely greedy child, but also because somewhere within the wrapped treats was always a Terry’s Chocolate Orange for each of us. I loved cracking the round foil ball on the table before unwrapping it and watching it break into segments, almost as much as I loved the rich chocolaty burst followed by a hint of bright citrus. I haven’t had a Terry’s in years, but I still veer directly to chocolate when I’m trying to figure out what to pair with oranges.

I used my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe for this, which is just Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake in cupcake form. This is my absolute favorite chocolate cupcake recipe - it’s rich, moist, delicious, and (most importantly) incredibly easy to make. Perking it up with a bit of blood orange zest adds a whole new element, and the tart blood orange cream cheese frosting puts it completely over the top. I loved these so much that I’m going to go scour the grocery stores for more blood oranges so I can squeeze these in a few more times before blood oranges go all unseasonal on me.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Desserts

Blood Orange Curd

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Julie • 4 Comments

Last week, I impulse bought a 3-pound bag of blood oranges during a 6 AM trip to the grocery store. Clearly, I was not entirely awake, or I would’ve remembered the identical 3-pound bags of blood oranges I bought over the previous two winters that sat unused in my produce drawer until, shriveled and dried up, I finally had to throw them away.

When I came to my senses (thank you, caffeine), I remembered those squandered oranges and made a solemn and dramatic vow to myself that not only would I not allow this batch to go to waste, but I would use every single bit of them – pith, peel, juice – in glorious ways (okay, I threw out the seeds). I quickly got to work peeling and juicing (lesson learned: convert your kitchen into something similar to Dexter’s kill room, or risk staining everything within five feet). Then, as I proudly gazed down at my pile of zest and peels and cups of beautiful scarlet juice, I realized that I’d given exactly zero thought to what I was actually going to do with all of it. Drink it straight? Yes, I did have a cup. But after my declaration of grand destiny for this bag o’ blood oranges, simply chugging the juice seemed like a bit of a letdown.

I’d never made my own curd before – the fact that my Trader Joe’s sells lemon curd at a very reasonable price, combined with the very real potential of homemade curd ending up as sweetened scrambled eggs (ew), has always held me back. But how could I resist blood orange curd? I certainly couldn’t buy it at Trader Joe’s, and the odds of ending up with a wealth of perfectly sweet, tart, pale pink loveliness handily trumped the risk of sugary scrambled eggs.

I’m so glad I made this – it’s incredibly simple, tastes amazing, and I’ve already thought of about 354657 ways to use it, including:

donut filling
blood orange tarts
Swiss meringue buttercream
eaten alone with a spoon

In fact, I loved it so much that I made a second batch. And then I had to go out and buy another bag of blood oranges. Don’t fear for their future, though – I think it’s safe to say that you’ll never see blood oranges go to waste in my home again.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Quick & Easy, Sauces & Condiments