‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond’s Chocolate Cups Are an Easy and Fun Treat
Ree Drummond takes a simple chocolate treat idea and gives it a serious upgrade by topping it with homemade sugared orange peels. The Pioneer Woman star’s chocolate cups can be decorated with a number of fun add-ons, including sprinkles and espresso beans.
‘The Pioneer Woman’ star made a collection of chocolate goodies
Drummond made the recipe as one component of a platter filled with chocolate treats her daughter was taking to school. “There are adorable classic chocolate cups decorated with homemade sugared orange peel and a bunch of store-bought toppings,” she explained.
The Pioneer Woman star stepped in to help her busy daughter — and even reserved a plate of goodies for her husband Ladd.
“Paige needs to take a platter of treats to her class tomorrow and since she’s a senior, she’s plenty busy with volleyball and studying,” Drummond explained. “So I’m going to pull it together for her. Everything on the platter is chocolate, chocolate, chocolate — and I’m starting by making some sugared orange peels to go on top of classic chocolate cups.”
Ree Drummond made homemade sugared orange peels for her chocolate treat
Drummond demonstrated how to make the unique topping. “I love these sugared orange peels. I could pretty much eat them as a treat all in themselves but on top of the chocolate cups, ooh, they’re gonna be good,” she said.
The Food Network host peeled off strips of orange peel and cut them into slices, then added them to water in a saucepan. She brought the mixture to a boil and cooked it for 7 minutes. Drummond strained the peels and made a syrup with water and sugar in a saucepan.
“There are some recipes that call for the orange peels to be cooked three times,” she explained. “I like to cut out unnecessary steps whenever I can, so I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll just cook them once.’ And they turned out just fine.”
Drummond added the peels to the syrup and cooked them for 20 minutes. She moved them to a cooling rack set over a sheet pan, separating the peels so they didn’t stick together. Once cooled, The Pioneer Woman star tossed the peels in sugar and coated them, then placed them back on the rack. “The texture of these sugared orange peels is so good,” she shared. “I think candied sugared orange peels should go in pretty much anything.”
How to make Ree Drummond’s chocolate cups recipe
To make the chocolate cups, Drummond melted milk chocolate and semisweet chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water. After the mixture melted, she poured the chocolate into a liquid measuring cup then poured it into paper muffin cups.
Drummond had a variety of toppings for her dessert cups. She chopped toffee bars and sprinkled them on top of some of the cups, and added rainbow sprinkles, chocolate-covered espresso beans, and orange peels to the others.
“You want to act before the chocolate sets because you want whatever you top them with to stick,” she advised. “If you’re making these for the same day you need to let them set for about 3 hours.”
The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.
