Last year I made marmalade for the first time but found it quite laborious as the recipe had me boiling oranges in their skins and then chopping the skins finely. It took me an age and was incredibly messy! Recently I have been longing to try marmalade again and have had lots of lovely organic blood oranges delivered by my Riverford vegman. I decided to try to make blood orange marmalade but in the simplest way I could think of and it worked well. Blood oranges have a lovely sweet subtle flavour and  I added a little port to give some more depth – it also added a richness to the warm red colour of the marmalade.

I started with 5 blood oranges and grated the skin into a large pan. To this I added the juice of the oranges and the juice of two small lemons. I added more liquid to make 1 litre in total. The other parts of the fruit were placed in a muslin bag, tied up tightly and added to the pan. This mixture was then boiled for a few minutes. It was then left to stand overnight.

The next day I removed the muslin bag and squeezed all the juice from it back into the pan, then discarded the remains. 1 kg granulated sugar was then added and the pan heated gently, stirring to dissolve it. The pan was then brought to the boil and left to boil rapidly for about ten minutes. I then started to test for setting by taking a little on a teaspoon and placing it on a very cold saucer. It set quite quickly and was poured straight into jars.

Homemade marmalade is perfect on toast for breakfast but is also tempting for afternoon tea spread thickly on  your favourite tea loaf!

For some more lovely marmalade inspiration and tips see Laura Loves Cakes http://lauralovescakes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/winter-preserving-workshop_4.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+Lauralovescakes+(lauralovescakes)