Chocolate Orange Sticks are made with a delicious orange jelly filling dipped in melted chocolate – a favorite holiday candy!
Chocolate Orange Sticks are one of my absolute favorite holiday treats! When I was a kid, every year my dad would get a box of chocolate covered orange sticks in his stocking for Christmas and he was very nice to share since I learned to love them too! I recently found a recipe for this special treat and I was really nervous that they wouldn’t taste as good as the kind in the box, but the homemade version was even better! They turned out amazing! Like many candy recipes, the process takes a little bit of time but it is definitely worth it.
You can store these for a week at room temperature (maybe longer, but they’ve never lasted that long at my house!) and they still taste fresh! Since they are so easy to store, this makes this candy the perfect treat to ship to friends and family who live far away – these hold up better than a lot of other homemade treats.
Update: I’ve since created a raspberry version of these and they are amazing too! I can’t decide which ones I like better, so I just have to make both every time!
HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE ORANGE STICKS
- 3 Tbsp unflavored gelatin (I used 4 of the little packets)
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tsp orange extract
- 5-6 drops orange food coloring
- 12 oz melting chocolate or chocolate almond bark
- Soften the gelatin in cold water and set aside.
- Combine sugar and hot water, stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the gelatin mixture and slowly boil on medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients.
- Pour into well-greased molds. I purchased this mold from Amazon, but I also used two mini loaf pans for the remainder of the mixture and the loaf pans worked just as well as the silicone mold.
- Let stand over night and then dip into melted chocolate. I also drizzled a little white chocolate on top just for fun. Enjoy!
- Chocolate Raspberry Sticks
- Chocolate Orange Cookies
- Homemade Peppermint Patties
- Tiger Butter Candy
- Chocolate Peppermint Truffles
HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE ORANGE STICKS
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp unflavored gelatin I used 4 of the little packets
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tsp orange extract
- 5-6 drops orange food coloring
- 12 oz melting chocolate or chocolate almond bark
Instructions
- Soften the gelatin in cold water and set aside.
- Combine sugar and hot water, stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the gelatin mixture and slowly boil on medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients.
- Pour into well-greased molds. I've used silicone molds and mini loaf pans and the loaf pans work just as well as the silicone mold.
- Let stand over night and then dip into melted chocolate. I also drizzled a little white chocolate on top just for fun. Enjoy!
Video
Khrystal says
Can you use real orange juice or does it have to be concentrate. Would love to make them for my love, but I do and will not use concentrated juices ever. So can I make some orange juice and freeze it? Or will this change the flavor too much? Thank you 😀
Nellie says
I have never tried it with just regular orange juice, but the main problem is that the juice will have less flavor than the concentrate so the candy might not end up tasting quite as “orange” as normal. You could probably add a little bit of extra orange extract to make up some of the flavor and it might not be too noticeable. I’ve also made a raspberry version of these that do not require juice concentrate, but flavored Jello instead. So basically you would be substituting orange jello for some of the unflavored gelatin to help add flavor without the concentrate. You can find this recipe here: https://butterwithasideofbread.com/chocolate-raspberry-sticks/ . Hope that helps!
John Wilson says
Why the big hang up about concentrated juices? That only means some of the water has been removed. Nothing changed at all. No additives, nothing. You really need to educate yourself. Not meaning to be rude, but that is just ridiculous.
Cindy Brady says
Why won’t the chocolate stay on the jellies after they are set up, it cracks and breaks off.
Jessica says
Are you chilling the candy afterwards? Are you putting them down on a cold pan? I find that sometimes makes my chocolate crack.
Trina says
Are you using the little Lorann lemon and orange extracts?
Nellie says
Trina- I just used the lemon and orange extracts at my local grocery store. I believe they are actually McCormick brand!
Sara says
Oh my! I would trip a 3 year old for these! My ex father in law loved these, he always called them orange gels. Got me hooked on them then the only place around to get them closed and moved. There was also raspberry gels that were amazing. The recipe doesn’t look overly complicated, so when the rain stops I am definitely gonna make em! I will give a shout and tell ya’ll if I managed ok. Now, can you replicate the raspberry? That would be wonderful if you could. Thank you😁
Sara says
Sorry, I got so excited I didn’t notice the recipe for the raspberry gels. Lol. Gonna save that one, also.
Jessica says
Yep, we love them both! Thanks Sara!
Nina says
Can the gels be made in a block and then sliced when set up? Trying not to go buy one more pan for my kitchen storage.
Jessica says
Yes, you can set the gels in a block and slice them!
Christina Willey says
Do these stay soft when you bite into them?
Kara says
Any altitude adjustments to consider? I live at just under 5000 feet altitude. Thank you!
Nellie says
Nope, altitude shouldn’t make a difference here – I’ve made these at several different altitudes with no problems!
Nichole Oswald says
How many silicone molds does one recipe fill? I am excited to make these. They are a Christmas must have at our house!
Nellie says
One batch fills up about 2 of the molds that each have 20 rectangle indentations. The rectangles are kind of wide so I usually cut them in half once set. So you’ll get about 40 orange sticks out of a batch. If you have extra mixture left after filling your molds, you can pour it in a small loaf pan – those work great too!
Tonya Tingey says
I am sooooo excited to make these for my father for Father’s Day!! I love them too! Thanks and also thanks for the raspberry ones too! I love your site. . .so many good recipes! Thank you!
Randi says
Can I just pour this into a 9×13 baking pan instead of a mold? Then cut afterwards?
Nellie says
I’ve never tried that, but I imagine it would work just fine! Just make sure the pan is well greased or it might get tricky!
Brandie Ann Faron says
Do you refrigerate the molds after you pour the gelatin in or just let them set a room temp overnight to set up?
Nellie says
I just let them set up at room temperature – works great!
Fiona says
Can you make these with pectin or something instead of gelatin?
Nellie says
I’ve never tried, but please let us know if you experiment!
Megan says
Can I make it without the extract, Would extra juice work the same? And also, why the lemon? Does it enhance the orange flavor, or can you taste the lemon in it?
Nicole says
juice has less flavor than extract so you do want to use extract for a more concentrated flavor. the lemon once added tastes almost like orange and really helps to enhance the flavors well.
Alice says
Great recipe. I used yours as a base guide to make it into my own sugar-free version. Surprisingly enough, such little concentrate is used that it balances out to such a ting amount of sugar per serving. Absolutely spot on orange flavor!!! Brilliant. Thanks so much for this great recipe. I would never have thought of the concentrate on my own. P.s. even sugar free these are delicious!!!
Nicole says
Im glad to hear it!