Fig/Orange Marmalade - low sugar

I got a yummy Christmas present awhile ago but never had a chance to use it. Someone who knows me, knows I adore figs and sent me 3lbs of dried ones. Ive been wanting to make a fig jam with some orange in it for months now. But it wasn't until I made Orange Marmalade that I really felt what I wanted to do would work out good. I never made marmalade before that and always thought it was so complicated. And I never liked the bitterness of it, so I made my own which was not as bitter tasting. In fact it was so good , I'm on the last jar now.

And so I decided to make this like a Marmalade using the whole fruit and the zest from it too. But last time I made the marmalade it was the full sugar recipe. I really wanted to try to make a low sugar one as I often stir this into my morning yogurt or have it on toast. I don't want alot of sugar in the mornings. And so I did it with this recipe. 

 Fig/Orange Marmalade Makes 12 8oz. jars. 
4c. dried figs
3 lg. oranges
6tb. low sugar pectin
3 1 /2c. sugar
Water
Extra Orange juice to even out the measurement when cooked if needed

Remove stems from figs and cut into pieces. I quartered mine but next time Ill chop them smaller I think. I still had lg. chunks of figs that didn't break down. They were soft and could be mashed tho. Toss into 8qt. pot.  

 Next cut off ends of oranges and zest all the skin off with a grater or micro-plane zester. Try not to get much of the white pith. Cut off all white pith on the remaining oranges. Cut in quarters and remove white membranes and hard pieces from the inside. (sometimes the navel looks like another orange growing inside and its hard) Cut the pieces smaller and toss zest and orange pieces into the pot with the figs.

 Cover with water and put on stove. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil, then lower and simmer for an hr. The figs will swell and the water level will drop. Try to keep the fruit covered with water by adding more when needed.

When fruit is soft, check to see if the figs can be mashed and either mash them if you want smaller pieces in the mix or do as I did and hit it with an immersion blender a little bit. You don't have to do much, as you do not want it pureed, just breaking down larger chunks.

Measure fruit mixture. It should be about 8 1/2c of fruit and juice. If there's not enough add some Orange juice to make the full amt. (you could just add some water but the juice gives it more flavor) Bring to a boil and whisk in the low sugar pectin. Boil for 2 min. at a hard boil. (Hard boil is one that cant be stirred down.)

 Add sugar all at once and stir in well. Bring to a boil again and simmer for 10min. more.  Pour into hot jars and seal in water bath for 10min. ***This is sweet but not real sweet which was what I wanted. I figured the dried figs would be sweet enough. After cooking it I found they were good but not sweet enough so I added some sugar. Its a nice balance now. You get a tang of citrus but cant always taste it. It just enhances the figs. I think this would make a great filling for jam cookies or linzer type cookies too. And this would make killer Fig Newton type ones for sure.

Sweet Orange Marmalade

My friend made marmalade last week and I watched him. I had never made it before. I don't like the bitterness of marmalade but I do love orange, its one of my most favorite flavors. So I decided after watching him to make some of my own. This is my version and I like it. It has a nice jell to it which set up over night. The color is pretty but it doesn't have big pieces of fruit or zest so its not like some of the classics. However, I opened one this morning and I like it alot. It has a nice orange taste with a bit of bite from the zest but its not bitter. And while you cannot see alot of the fruit or zest in the jar, when using it , you can. I did use regular sugar tho and its a full sugar recipe which I generally don't like. But I felt this probably wouldn't work if I didn't do that. I am considering trying to make a low sugar version one day which will probably be more like a jam.  

I had a few different ideas when making it but decided to just make this plain this time to see if I liked the ratio of tart to sweet. I think another time I might try some grated ginger mixed with the orange while its cooking. Or I'm thinking of adding some whiskey to the finished product before canning. Either one I think would be yummy.

 Sweet Orange Marmalade Makes about 8pts.

10 lg. navel oranges
2 lemons
water
I pkg. pectin
9 1/2c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

 Wash oranges and then cut off the ends, just enough to expose fruit. Using a grater or micro-plane grater, which I used, grate the zest off the oranges in strips as long as your able to make them. You want pieces not gratings. It is much easier to do it on micro-plane lg. hole one like you see in the picture. But it can be done on the lg. holes of a vegetable grater too. Do not grate so hard that you get lots of white pith, but don't grate so light that you don't get any. A little bit is OK so you will have to play around with it till you find what works for you. As you see in the picture this is hardly any pith. When all are zested, set aside.

 Now you want to remove as much pith as you can from the oranges by using a sharp knife and slicing it off, trying not to slice the fruit. It is OK if some remains, it melts away in the cooking somewhat. But you don't want tons of it cuz it will make it bitter. Sort of like the photo you see here.

 Then cut the orange in quarters and take out any pithy stuff inside. Navel oranges often have an end that looks like another orange is starting to grow inside it......and it can be hard. So if it is, remove this too. Then cut the quarters in half and toss in an 8qt. stock pot or larger. 

 When all are cut like this, cover the fruit with cold water and put on the stove to high heat.

 At this point I wash my jars and rings and put them in a 200 degree oven to keep them warm. You can also put the lids in some hot water about 10min. before you are going to can.

 When it starts to boil, add the zest, the juice of 2 lemons and let cook down till the fruit has fallen apart, about an hr.

 When it looks like most of it has broken down, check for any lumps and smash them a bit too.  You want to measure your fruit at this point, you should have 7c. of fruit and juice. I was shy about 1/8th of a cup so I added some orange juice I had on hand. Return measured fruit to pot and at this point add the package of pectin and stir well. Cook to a hard boil. A hard boil is one that even if stirring it , it still bubbles alot. I let it cook about 5 min. Now put 4 spoons into the freezer to use later on for the jell stage.

 Measure out your sugar and add it a bit at a time to the hot pot, stirring it in each time till all is used up. Now you will want to cook this to the jell stage...which can take awhile. Bring this to a boil but don't let it foam up. If it does lower the heat a bit.....you want it bubbling pretty good but not real hard. I tested mine about every 15-20 min. with the cold spoon from the freezer, looking for a good jell.

Take one spoon out and scoop up a bit, put it back in the freezer a minute. Check to see if it has thickened and is making wrinkles if you tilt the spoon. I found mine took an hr of cooking before I hit that stage. So keep checking. Once it gets to that stage, stir in the vanilla, take out your jars and fill them. Wipe the rims, top with lids and rings. 

 My friend didn't Water Bath them, he just filled the hot jars with the hot jam and turned them upside down to distribute the zest and fruit and seal the jars. I did that this time too. However, if you feel safer water bathing, then do it. It jelled fine over nite and all the jars were sealed. 

A pot of Gold

The other day I went to help a friend make a big batch of orange marmalade. I  had never made it before and wanted to learn. Now I can read a recipe just like anyone else can and Ive canned lots of things before. But marmalade Ive avoided cuz I do not like the bitterness of it. Yes I know that's the classic way but I don't like it. My friend says his isn't like that so I wanted to see what he does. Ill be making some this week and posting my recipe but for now I wanted to post what I did with the extra gold I got from this.

He cut the ends off the oranges and most of the pith, then cut them up. And when cleaning up I noticed all those orange ends and asked him could I take them home. Of course he said yes.....not gonna use them himself I guess. But I saw a pot of gold there.

 Ever notice that when you want to bake something it often calls for orange juice and the zest of one orange? How many times do you NOT have an orange around? And so I thought if I zested these and dried them, Id have a nice pot of gold sitting around for when I baked. I already did this with a few oranges and lemons I got a few months ago. And I often do it with lemons Ive juiced to make dressings for salads too. Once dried they stay nice in a jar in my cabinet so I can flavor up anything I want without having to run to the store all the time.

But I still had all these fragrant ends and thought why not put them in vinegar?  They still had some zest on them and there's oils in it yet. So why not extract those in white vinegar. I use white vinegar for cleaning my bathrooms and counters and such. I used to add orange essential oil to it so it would smell good too. So I thought why not fill a jar with these leftovers and cover with vinegar. Ill let it sit awhile and then drain it and Ill have a nice smelling cleaning liquid plus orange oil is a great de-greaser. 

 And so I ended up with this, you see here. That is an old plastic gallon jar from mayonnaise that I saved. Its perfect for the vinegar. Heck if the vinegar tastes good, I might just make some more with apple cider vinegar for salads. I have a bunch of oranges here I have to use this week to make my own marmalade. But also you could toss these in your freezer and when you want the house to smell good, throw a few slices into a pan of water with some spices and bring it to a boil, then simmer it and the whole house will smell good. Its a cheap room deodorizer. So I think I got a lot of bang for the buck and it wasn't even my bucks lol. These were free.

You have been warned....

Don't let this innocent looking muffin fool you. Its good, I mean really good,,,,,,seriously good. You wont want to eat just one. And I made them big. Trust me, you will still want another.....remember, you have been warned. lol

Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffins

1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 c. sugar
grated peel of one orange
1 large egg
1c. buttermilk
1/3 c. oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. sugar 


Streusel Topping
1/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


In a muffin pan that makes 6  large Texas size muffins, wipe the cups with some soft butter to ease removal.

Lightly spoon the flour into measuring cups and level  with a knife and combine it in a large bowl with the baking powder, salt, sugar, and citrus peel. Make a well in the center of the mixture. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and oil. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour and sugar and then toss the blueberries in this mixture until they are well-coated. Gently fold the blueberry mixture into the batter. Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins, filling 2/3 full.


To make the streusel topping, combine the 1/4 c. sugar, 2 1/2 Tbsp. flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the batter and bake for 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 6 large muffins.

The bug finally hit me.....

The bug finally hit me.....the spring cleaning bug. I was wandering online and came across a site for making organic stuff to clean your house with and this woman said use olive oil and lemon juice to polish your furniture. I didn't like her amts tho and like always tweaked it to what I like.

I often buy essential oils to keep around the house for healing and cleaning. Tea tree and grapefruit seed extract are great for bathrooms. Lavender in water is awesome for linens and helps you sleep. But I mix orange oil with my baking soda to clean my kitchen counters and my ceramic topped stove. Its not abrasive like other cleaners and the orange oil helps kill germs. Baking soda helps neutralize odors too.

So today I decided to try a tiny bit of olive oil and some orange oil to polish my oak table with. I loved it! It cleans it really good and leaves a nice shine. But all I have here is extra virgin olive oil and I sure didn't want to use that to clean with. Its too expensive but I did want to use a natural oil. I remembered some sesame oil I bought from an herb place on sale. I ordered it thinking it was a good deal and also thought it was toasted sesame oil. I was wrong..... I like toasted for cooking and oriental dishes. This wasn't so I didn't know what to do with it. I put it on the shelf in my garage.

Today I remembered I had that. Its a nice neutral oil, its organic and its just sitting there. That woman's recipe said to use lemon juice. Well right now I have a ton of Meyer lemons begging to be used for something, on my tree outside. So I picked a few and made my own polish. I used the juice of 1 lemon, strained, added some orange essential oil too....maybe half tsp. and added sesame oil. I whisked it all together but didn't like that it was so waterery. I wanted a creamy polish, sort of like a creamy salad dressing. So I did what I used to do in the restaurant when I made mayonnaise. I just kept adding oil till it got to the consistency I liked. This used about 1/3 of a 16oz. bottle.

I think from now on Ill be making my own polish. Its safer, healthier and uses stuff I have on hand. You don't have to add the essential oil if you don't want too. I buy my essential oils in bulk on Ebay tho. They last a very long time kept in a dark place. I remembered I had some fragrance oils too. And so I decided to make some potpourri to put around the house.

This house has been stinky winter stale. I haven't been inspired to do a darn thing around here. I remember one day last week my bf opened the windows and aired the house out and I felt better. I also remembered that I always had seasonal potpourris around that I make myself. Ive just stopped doing all that cuz of this move. And so today I decided ,screw the moving I'm gonna still live in my house. I buy in bulk those crystals that you add water too, for houseplants. You know those that hold alot to keep watering your plants when you forget? I add liquid potpourri or fragrance oils or essential oils to water and pour it over a tsp. or so of those crystals. I keep adding till the crystals are big and have absorbed about all they can. Then I put spoonfuls in covered pretty containers to put around the house.

When I want the house to smell fresh I just take the covers off awhile and let the fragrance wander thru the house. Right now my senses are overwhelmed tho lol. Ive been busy polishing and the crystals were busy absorbing and that fragrance (rose with a touch of orange) has taken over the house! And so I stopped cleaning to put that stuff in containers before the scent kills me here lolol. But at least now the house smells nice and I'm inspired to do my spring cleaning.