Recipe: Iced Oranges

This has to be my favorite summer recipe. This is by far not the first time I’ve made this, but I figured it would be nice to share anyway.

The taste of this is so refreshing. The orange juice and the lemon always mix just right to produce a refreshingly sweet and sour taste. The consistency always turns out, for me, like shaved ice, but I think it’s supposed to be more like a sherbert. It is great during the summer when it’s hot and you just don’t want ice cream, but you want something cold. I personally think it is a great compliment to a dessert, particularly a chocolate one such as brownies.

Making it is a snap. The recipe suggests that you squeeze your own oranges and then use the oranges as the “bowls” for the ice. My recommendation is if you’re not in it for the long haul, which I am most often not, you should just use 100% orange juice (I prefer Simply Orange or Tropicana) and just freeze it in a freezer-friendly plastic container. Squeezing the juice from the oranges and using the oranges as bowls, while cute and can be very flashy, is EXTREMELY time consuming (a lot longer than it has to be) and frankly, the time that I put into it wasn’t worth the end product. However, if you have time to kill and really just want to impress, have at it.

One final tip when making this recipe –I find that the more lemon juice I add (without turning the whole thing into a lemon flavor) the better it tastes. I would definitely taste it before you put it in the freezer for the first time and adjust it to how you like it.

Ok, here’s the recipe:

“Iced Oranges” (from Mediterranean: A Taste of the Sun in Over 150 Recipes)

2/3 cup sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

14 medium oranges* (substitute for 3 cups of orange juice)

8 fresh bay leaves, to decorate

Put the sugar in a heavy pan. Add half the lemon juice and ½ cup of water. Cook over low heat until the sugar has dissolved completely. Bring to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes, until the syrup is clear. Let cool.

Slice the tops off eight of the oranges to make “hats”. Scoop out the flesh of the oranges and reserve. Put the empty orange shells and “hats” on a tray and place in the freezer until needed. *SKIP THIS STEP IF YOU ARE ONLY USING ORANGE JUICE

Grate the zest of the remaining oranges and add to the syrup. Squeeze the juice from the oranges and from the reserved flesh. There should be 3 cups. Squeeze another orange or add bought orange juice, if necessary. *ADD THE 3 CUPS OF ORANGE JUICE HERE INSTEAD OF DOING THIS STEP.

Stir the orange juice and remaining lemon juice, with 6 tablespoons water, into the syrup. Taste, adding more lemon juice or sugar, as desired. Pour the mixture into a shallow freezer container and freeze for 3 hours.

Transfer the mixture into a bowl and whisk to break down the ice crystals. Freeze for 4 more hours until firm but not solid.

Pack the mixture into the orange shells, piling it up, and set the “hats” on top. Freeze until ready to serve. Just before serving, push a skewer into the tops of the “hats” and push a bay leaf into each one.

Rating: A