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Orange marmalade

Orange Fruit Jellies (Marmalade)

Homemade fruit jellies couldn't be easier to make! Just about every kid—and plenty of grown-ups—loves marmalade. The dyes, artificial flavors, and preservatives in the store-bought kind are nothing to celebrate, so it's better to make it at home from simple, affordable ingredients. You can use any freshly squeezed juice, or juice from frozen berries, and it comes together quite quickly. Give it a try and you won't stop at one recipe—you'll be experimenting and inventing new flavors!

BLUE-EYED

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Oranges

Sugar (1 level cup per 200 ml)

200

Agar-agar

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 3 % 1 g

Fats 0 % 0 g

Carbohydrates 97 % 31 g

128 kcal

GI: 22 / 0 / 78

Cooking method

Step 1:

Gather your ingredients. Wash the oranges thoroughly.
Step 2:

Squeeze the juice however is easiest for you. If you're using a handheld juicer like the one in the photo, first hold the orange under hot water and roll it on the counter—you'll get more juice and it'll be easier to extract.
Step 3:

You can strain the juice through a coarse sieve for a clearer finished jelly. One medium orange yields about 100 ml of juice.
Step 4:

Divide the juice in half. Stir the sugar into one half (adjust the amount to taste—add more if the oranges are sour). Warm the other half slightly (I microwave it for 30 seconds), stir in the agar-agar, and let it stand for 15–20 minutes.
Step 5:

Bring the sweetened juice to a boil—start over low heat, stirring constantly, and once the sugar has fully dissolved, raise the heat to medium.
Step 6:

Stir the agar-agar juice into the boiling syrup. Cook the mixture for 3 minutes, then take it off the heat. Stir until smooth and let cool slightly.
Step 7:

Pour into silicone molds. Keep in mind that agar-agar mixtures set quickly even at room temperature, so don't wait for it to cool completely—otherwise it'll firm up right in the pot and be hard to pour. Let it cool a little, then refrigerate the molds for 1 hour.
Step 8:

Then pop the jellies out of the molds and treat your family—and don't forget yourself!
Step 9:

If there's any left, or if I'm making it ahead for a party, I lay it in a single layer in small (disposable) containers and keep it in the fridge. Though it gets eaten up fast and happily! Enjoy!

If you like, you can roll the jellies in sugar, but the sugar tends to melt on them over time, so it's better to dust them with fine sugar each time right before serving. For 7 g of agar-agar you can easily use 5 oranges. My 4 oranges made 470 g of delicious jellies.
Before adding agar, check its rating. The number on the package—say 600, 900, or 1200—indicates the strength (firmness) of the gel it produces; the higher the number, the firmer the jelly. Keep in mind that the agar-agar amounts in any recipe are approximate, since the result depends not only on the gel strength (the number on the package) but also on the quality of the agar and on the amount of sugar and acid in the dish. To get it right, do a quick test: put 1 tablespoon of the finished but not yet chilled mixture in the freezer for 1 minute. If the jelly sets to the consistency you want, your proportions are correct; if not, you'll need to thicken it or thin it out.