I like jams. I adore marmalades. I am addicted to tangerine marmalade. I warn you! You will be, too!
ingredients for a jar of marmalade (total cost about 3,5€ for the whole preparation with organic ingredients)
- 1 kg tangerines bio
- 35% caster sugar
- a pinch of salt
- a few lemon drops
Autumn is my favorite season. For various reasons. In terms of pastry ingredients, because it is the season of tangerines, my favorite autumn fruit. I buy plenty kilos of them every week. I eat them raw, I squeeze their juice, I candy their peels, I make tangerine marmalade, I bake tangerine flavored biscuits and cakes, I fill and brush them with tangerine marmalade. In a few words, I am tangerineaholic!
Here’s, how I make my favorite marmalade:
We wash the tangerines and peel them. We weigh them, then measure 35% of the weight in sugar and 20% of their weight in peels. We can use the rest of them to make candied tangerine peels (See HERE how to make them).
We cut the measured peels in julienne stripes, soak them in fresh water for about 15 minutes, then blanch them for 2-3 minutes in boiling water, until we remove the bitterness. We taste to check, if there is still much bitterness left and if necessary we repeat the blanching for 1, or even 2 times, until we remove most of the bitterness or according to preference.
Meanwhile, we cut the tangerines horizontally in two and with the tip of a small knife we remove the seeds and inner vertical fibers in the center of the fruit. We place the tangerine segments it in a thick heavy bottomed pot along with the sugar, the julienne rinds, a few lemon drops and a pinch of salt.
If we like we can coarsely blend pulp and rinds for a few seconds to a not fine but rather chunky puree before cooking the marmalade, keeping a handful of julienne rinds and cooking them as they are, for a more interesting visual result and texture. We cook them over medium-low heat for about an hour or more (it took me about 75 minutes), stirring occasionally, until the marmalade sets.
Meanwhile, we sterilize the jars we intent to use (we should use ones with an hermetic lid), by washing them with boiling water (or in a the dishwasher), placing them on a wire rack along with the lids and putting them in 150 C preheated oven for 10 min.
To check the doneness of the jam we pour a tsp on a little saucer that we have left in the freezer for about 5 minutes. If, when inclining the plate, the marmalade slips immediately the jam is not ready. But it doesn’t have to congeal immediately either. The right point is when tilting the saucer the jam slowly slips adhering to the surface! A rough rule is that it is better to leave it rather liquid than dry, because when cool it will crystalize unpleasantly.
We immediately transfer the jam into the sterilized jars, leaving a 1cm margine, we close them tightly with the lid, we turn them upside down and let them cool completely, before flipping them again and storing them.
If you use only 35% sugar, as I do, it is not advisable to store the marmalade at room temperature. It is better to store it in the fridge. If you want the marmalade to last longer you should raise the sugar ratio to 50%.
The same way we can make marmalade with other citrus fruit, as well.
