Fig/Orange Marmalade - low sugar

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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.