Freezer Orange Marmalade

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IrishLass

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It's that time of year in my neck of the woods again when my orange trees are so laden with ripe fruit that they practically throw them at me every time I walk into my backyard, as if they are trying to tell me, "Hurry- get these things off of us! We can't hold onto them much longer!" lol

If I haven't been very active around here too much lately, it's because I've been mucho busy scrambling to find ways of preserving my bountiful windfall. I only have 2 trees, but it's almost insane how much fruit they produced this year! All I can say is be careful what you say to your trees...they're listening! (Yes- I'm one of those crazy ladies that talks to her plants. :lol: I'm always speaking good things over them whenever I get near them).

So.... anyway, I've been busy juicing, making orange simple syrup to use as a base for frozen treats, making freezer marmalade, grating up lots of zest to candy and to freeze, not to mention making orange cupcakes and orange cream pie and creamy orange shave ice, etc...

Anyway, freezer marmalade is a new thing to me. Normally, I cook up my recipe and then can it in a water bath, but this year I wanted to do the freezer method which doesn't require any cooking of the fruit or water-bath canning at all.

I couldn't find much on the interwebs for making fresh, freezer orange jam or marmalade, so I pretty much winged it with some instant pectin (Ball brand). And it worked!

Anyway, if any of y'all are in the same boat as me with lots of oranges you don't know what to do with, here is my recipe for freezer orange marmalade/orange jam. Actually, I've taken to calling it my orange jamalade. lol :

Makes 1 pint.

-1 2/3 cups of chopped orange pulp and juices, minus the skin, seeds, pith and membranes (it normally takes a mix of about 6 small to medium oranges for me or 2 to 3 very large oranges, to get 1 2/3 cup worth)

-166g castor sugar (i.e., superfine sugar)- roughly 3/4 cup - 1 cup worth

-1 tbsp. bottled or fresh lemon juice (I like the using the Organic Santa Cruz brand because it doesn't contain any additives)

-2 tbsp. candied orange zest (I use a microplane to zest the oranges I'll be using to make the jamalade, and then I cover the zest with water in a small pot and boil it 10 minutes, then I change the water and repeat 2 more times before lastly adding an equal amount of water and sugar to the drained zest and boiling it one more time. Then I let it completely cool before using in my jamalade (freeze any left-overs). This helps to lessen the bitterness of the zest. Y'all may like your marmalade bitter or with bigger chunks of peel, and that's okay- you can do this part differently, but I'm a sissy. I like mine sweet with paper-thin little slivers of zest to give just a hint of a zing here and there when eating it, and that's about as much as I can take).

-16g to 20g Ball brand RealFruit Instant Pectin for freezer jam with no cooking (roughly 2 tbsp. to 2 tbsp. +1 tsp). You might need to play with the pectin amount here. Oh- and also- don't believe the package when it says your jam will be ready in 30 minutes. Jams made from other fruits might be ready in as little as 30 minutes, but I found that my orange jamalade can take up to 3 days to finally set up (in the fridge). Once it's set up, I package it in either a quart-size FoodSaver bag or a quart-size Freezer Zip Loc laid flat on its side with all the air sucked out, so that it will take up as little room in my freezer as possible.

In one bowl, mix the chopped orange pulp and juices, the lemon juice and the candied zest.

In a separate bowl whisk the castor sugar and the pectin together until well-combined (this will eliminate any lumping in the finished jam).

Pour the orange mixture into the sugar/pectin mixture and whisk for 3 minutes.

What I've been doing after this is letting it stand covered at room temp for 30 minutes and then refrigerating until set up to my satisfaction, which can take as long as 3 days. If it's still not set up well enough by then, I have been adding in a tsp. more pectin (mixed in a little sugar) to it, which has been doing the trick for me in those cases.

The cool thing is that I can open the bag of frozen jamalade and scoop out as much or as little as I want at a time, and then reseal the bag and pop it back into the freezer.

Enjoy!

IrishLass :)
 
Thanks! Around here (Arizona) people are literally giving away oranges, grapefruit, and lemons. Craigslist is full of freebie ads! That seems like a good way to use them up!
 
Well, holy cow, IrishLass! You've really been a busy bee! That's the thing about growing fresh produce, you don't get to decide when to harvest and prepare, it demands your time and attention when it wants, lol. That really sounds like a great recipe and I love your term "jamalade". It's perfect! Now I wish I could grow citrus fruit. I'm in the high desert so the temps are too cold in the winter. I guess I'll have to watch for grocery sales or take Dorymae's advice and look on Craig's List. Thanks for sharing!
 
Freezer jam is so much tastier than regular heated jam!! I'll eat it with a spoon for dessert, no toast needed!
I've never seen a recipe for orange before so I'd love to try your recipe.
 
I know what you mean about the difference between heated jam and fresh/freezer jam. I find the taste to be so much brighter and 'real'.

This was my first try at a freezer version. I honestly had no idea whether or not it could be done since I could find practically nothing online recipe-wise. I was only able to find one or two mentions of it, but that was it. Even my Ball canning book and the recipes listed on my various pectin inserts made no mention of freezer version of fresh orange jam or marmalade. Well, now y'all know! Yes- it can be done!

It can be done with pink grapefruit, too. My best friend gave me some of hers to experiment with and it worked!

My freezer is practically bursting with all things orange right now! We've got all of the oranges off the trees, but I now have 3 boxes of them sitting on my patio still waiting to be juiced or jammed or syrup-ed, or zested or ice-creamed! I need a bigger freezer! lol


IrishLass :)
 
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Wow, you have been a busy bee. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I love freezer jam. Strawberry, Raspberry, Blueberry and Peach I have done. Never done Orange. Bet it's delicious. Unfortunately we don't have citrus trees here in Michigan, too cold. Maybe I'll have my parent bring some oranges from Florida when they come back and give it a try.
 
Ooooo, you made me have a premonition of this summer. We have tomatoes, cowhorn hybrid cayennes, onions, and cilantro, and I make salsa (think like 50+ jars) and spend weeks canning. I have a terrible canning getup and can only do like 5 or 6 cans at a time. ** Shudders thinking of all that work. **
We also have other veggies, but that gets used pretty fresh.
I'd love citrus trees. That's a wonderful recipe, Thx for sharing!!!!!
 
A little boy from our neighborhood came around with a wagon full of lemons and oranges for 10 cents a piece. Now I have something to do with the oranges! Thanks for sharing! Your home must smell amazing! As a bonus, my son will be glad I'm making something edible! Not just something that looks edible (cupcake soap, cupcake bath bombs etc..) his friend almost bit into a cupcake bath bomb the other day!
 
Sounds delicious! Would love to try it out soon, I'd try to make a more healthier version of it and if it's successful, I might share it with you guys! ;)
 
IrishLass, you are giving me so much hope with all your food recipes. The cold brew tea, the grape freezer zam and now orange jamalade I used to cook and bake a lot but when I turned a vegan, the fuse kinda went off. Your recipes, I can definitely try, they sound yummy. Fresh flavor is heavenly. I'm going to order the pectin today and have a go with some grocery store oranges. The cold brew, I tried, it's fantastic. Thank you.
Btw, you can peel the zest and dry it to use in soap. That's what I do with the oranges i squeeze for juice everyday. I found that it anchors the citrus scents well and also lend a light yellow color to soap.
 
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