I was fortunate in that one of my neighbors invited me to head into “the big city” for a day. We don’t get down there that often as I’ve mentioned so it was nice to go with a girlfriend. The highlight of the trip was coming home with a big, whomping box of oranges. The hubby has a Belgian waffle several mornings a week and he uses my homemade jam instead of syrup. He loves citrus flavors so I thought I’d use some of those oranges and try marmalade. I knew I didn’t want it to be super sweet so I did some research and combined a couple of recipes to make a low sugar orange marmalade. I’m not gonna lie – it is a bit time consuming but it IS worth the effort. The finished product is delightfully full flavored and tart plus the hubby loves it. So that makes the effort all worthwhile.
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Low Sugar Orange Marmalade
Makes approx 6 half pints
8 oranges
2 lemons
4 cups of sugar
1 box Sure Jell no sugar pectin
2 1/2 cups of water
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 tsp butter
pinch of salt ( I always add a pinch of salt to my jams. It is not necessary, I just think it helps the taste.)
half pint jars, lids and water bath canner
Have your jars hot and ready to go
Using a vegetable peeler, carefully peel the citrus fruits.
Be sure to only take the peel and not the bitter white pith.
The instructions just tell you the chop up the fruit. Not very helpful if one has never really cut up an orange or lemon. I trimmed the rest of the peel off of the fruit and cut the oranges and lemons into supremes.
After the supremes were cut I squeezed what was left to be sure to get all of the juice out.
Then cut all of the supremes into fourths.
Chop the peels into small pieces.
(The kitchen smelled like summer.)
Add the chopped peel, 2 1/2 cups water and 1/8 tsp baking soda to a large, non reactive pot.
Bring it to a boil, cover it and let it simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
Next add the fruit and its juice, return to a simmer and let cook for 10 minutes.
While the fruit is cooking get the sugar and pectin ready. Put the pectin and 1/4 cup of sugar in one bowl and the 3 3/4 cups of sugar in another bowl.
Once the fruit has simmered for 10 minutes add the sugar/pectin mixture and the 1 tsp butter to the pot. Mix well and bring to a ROLLING BOIL – a boil you cannot stir down. When that happens add the rest of the sugar and return to a rolling boil FOR EXACTLY ONE MINUTE. Turn off the heat.
Ladle the low sugar orange marmalade into the half pint jars leaving 1/2″ headspace. Wipe the rims and add the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes. Adjust time if over 3,000 per your canner’s instructions. Turn off the heat and let them sit in the canner for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the canner and let them sit overnight.
How is the Low Sugar Orange Marmalade?
It is quite tasty, not to mention quite pretty in the jar. I had enough oranges to make two batches of low sugar orange marmalade. The second batch I played around with a little – I know, SHOCKING! I added some chopped strawberries at the very end of processing to make strawberry orange marmalade.
I have also made him Zucchini Carrot Ginger Marmalade for a change of pace.
Even though this took a while to make hubby LOVES it and that is all that matters to me. If presented with lots o’oranges I will make it for him again. Citrus in these parts is scary expensive so when I can find it on sale in bulk I don’t like to let any go to waste due to mold issues so I try to get it used all up.
Now my jam cupboard is overflowing with choices like Cherry Lemonade Jam, Ginger Spiced Pear Jam and of course Orange Marmalade. I like when there are so many choices for him.
PrintLow Sugar Orange Marmalade
A classic orange marmalade made with less sugar
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 half pints 1x
- Category: jams and jellies
- Method: waterbath canning
- Cuisine: unknown
Ingredients
- 8 oranges
- 2 lemons
- 4 cups of sugar
- 1 box Sure Jell low sugar pectin
- 2 1/2 cups of water
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp butter
- pinch of salt ( I always add a pinch of salt to my jams. It is not necessary, I just think it helps the taste.)
- half pint jars, lids and water bath canner
- Have your jars hot and ready to go
Instructions
- Using a vegetable peeler, carefully peel the citrus fruits. Be sure to only take the peel and not the bitter white pith
- Set the peels aside.
- In my research all of the recipes said “cut up the fruit.” Not very helpful if one has never really cut up an orange or lemon. I trimmed the rest of the peel off of the fruit and cut the oranges and lemons into supremes (there is a link to instructions in the post). After the supremes were cut squeeze the juice out into a bowl
- cut all of the supremes into fourths.
- Chop the peels into small pieces.
- Put the chopped peel, 2 1/2 cups water and the baking soda into a large, non reactive pot.
- Bring it to a boil, cover it and let it simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
- Next add the fruit and its juice, return to a simmer and let cook for 10 minutes.
- While the fruit is cooking get the sugar and pectin ready. Put the pectin and 1/4 cup of sugar in one bowl and the 3 3/4 cups of sugar in another bowl.
- Once the fruit has simmered for 10 minutes add the sugar/pectin mixture and the 1 tsp butter to the pot.
- Mix well and bring to a ROLLING BOIL – a boil you cannot stir down. When that happens add the rest of the sugar and return to a rolling boil FOR EXACTLY ONE MINUTE. Turn off the heat.
- Ladle the marmalade into the half pint jars leaving 1/2″ headspace. Wipe the rims and add the lids. Process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes.Make any suggested adjustments if you are over 3,000ft.
- Turn off the heat and let them sit in the canner for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the canner and let them sit overnight.
Notes
this is time consuming but well worth the effort
Keywords: marmalade, orange marmalade, low sugar orange marmalade
